Hi Diane. In late on this... dont seem to have nearly as much time on my hands these days but I wanted to reply. Haven't read what appears to have become a lengthy discussion yet, but I'll check out some of the posts. My answer in any case is that I think the settling time is entirely dependent on the climate difference between where they came from, and where they are now.... and to some degree how long they were at their previous location. There is a lot more to why pianos change pitch relative to climate then any conceivable change in soundboard and bridge material dimensions can account for... which directly implies that pinblock, case parts... and literally every thing that is part of the chain of components holding the string tension can get involved one way or the other. Some of these parts are going to take longer to finish any <<permanent>> change then others. Damp Chasers can not completely compensate for this by any means. Strikes me that a Damp Chaser at best will more even out an existing climate (seen from the instruments perspective) then significantly change it. I've had instruments come directly from Germany to UiB and take three-four months to settle in, and others delivered from more local suppliers settle in nearly immediately. I suppose to some degree this also depends on how green the wood is. Not all manufacturers handle the wood seasoning process alike... and for that matter not all models from the same manufacturer always get the same priority. Sum summarium ... I don't really think there is a straight on answer. I do suppose there should be a reasonable time limit. If they havent pretty much stabalized after tops 6 months... I perhaps would start worrying. Cheers RicB I know many of you have written in the past about the problems with tuning stability in brand new loaner pianos from manufacturers. Fortunately the college where I am tuning has purchased these pianos, so they won't disappear just when we get them settled in. However, my question is this; in a practice room in a small college, how long, or how many tunings do you think it will take for the school's new Kawai UST-9's to stabilize in tuning?
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