[CAUT] What a joke!!

[Jeff Stickney]

At the recent California convention, Darrell Fandrich suggested the 
possibility of putting a space blanket over the strings - possibly 
holding it in place with magnets?  He did an experiment putting a space 
blanket over the strings and blowing a hair dryer on it - no affect on 
the unisons.  Pulled the blanket away and they started go almost 
immediately.  This would help if the problem is temperature - as in 
direct sunlight.  If humidity is on the rise, I'm not sure that would do 
much for the situation.  At least it would help in some of those outdoor 
situations.

Jeff Stickney, RPT

Chris Solliday wrote:
> I empathize Paul. You were truely in an untenable situation. And it 
> looks like it will keep happening. This jogged my memory of an 
> incident that occurred when I was just beginning at our craft, and 
> when I was willing to try almost anything, no matter how stupid it 
> looked or might seem, to get the job done.
> I was on stand-by for an outdoor jazz festival (and I do not blame 
> jazz for these kinds of situations) in my neighborhood, so my friends 
> and family were all there. The piano being used was an old and 
> partially rotten Steinway B (at least it had good parents) which had 
> been in an abandoned building for decades molding away in the damp 
> Pocono summers with little heat in the winter. The strings were 
> totally rusted, the cabinet veneer was powdery to the touch and the 
> action was seizing. Suffice to say that preparation was long and 
> arduous, but I was able to get the thing working and in reasonable 
> tune at 440. Then the next day, we moved it outside and on stage. As 
> the morning began everyone revelled in the fact that providence had 
> provided a glorious day of sunshine and warmth, although the threat of 
> rain persisted remaining in the background and the humdity was 
> changing. By 11:00am the piano had begun to change and I could no 
> longer say 440 would be there, by 11:30 the tenor section was on the 
> rise and no longer reliable. Unisions were moving, etc.
>  I consulted with a friend who plays the saxophone and is usually 
> pretty level headed despite repeatedly blowing into that tube. He was 
> also on the Board of Directors and could make decisions for the 
> festival. I told him how unstable that I thought the piano would be 
> for the next two days of music, 10 acts a day, almost all of them 
> using the piano. He asked if I could think of anyway to improve 
> things, and all I could say was that if we could cool the piano down 
> and stabilize its environment we could improve our situation. So 
> he asked if could we put buckets of dry ice (which the 
> concessionaires were using for storage) under the piano and tent the 
> bottom would that work. I admitted I didn't have such experience but 
> that it sounded good to me. Attaching melting popsicles to the ribs 
> would have been fine with me at that point. So we arranged it with 
> buckets and blankets, even found some almost the color of decaying 
> traditional satin walnut.
> The festival began at about noon and by my first touch up at 1:00 I 
> could notice an improvment and I was able to help the unisions and the 
> tenor section. I can't say it was a total success but it was an 
> improvement and everyone who helped with the project, including most 
> of the stage crew and the directors, gained a little piece of 
> ownership that brought us closer together. Since then the festival has 
> grown over the years and they rent a Hamburg Steinway from Pro Piano 
> and it arrives the day prior to the event and is completely tented on 
> stage overnight (come rain or shine and the creeks do rise around 
> here) and tuned midmorning and touched up between acts each day. The 
> pitch is allowed to drift although the bass usually is the final 
> arbitor. And that is satisfactory, but still the climate is always 
> reaching out to through its own blanket on it all. Things are better 
> and shall I say workable.
> Your post, and recalling that festival, made me wonder what would 
> happen if the piano had a Piano Life Saver System installed. I've 
> never run into one outdoors. Anyone have any experience to share?
> Your brother in frustration,
> Chris Solliday
> Registered Piano Technician
>
>     ----- Original Message -----
>     *From:* Paul T Williams <mailto:pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu>
>     *To:* caut at ptg.org <mailto:caut at ptg.org>
>     *Sent:* Tuesday, June 16, 2009 6:09 PM
>     *Subject:* [CAUT] What a joke!!
>
>
>     Hi All,
>
>     UNL sponsers this Jazz in June thing every Tuesday,(in june of
>     course).  The rental piano arrives at 4:30 right?  It came from
>     it's cozy little inside the piano store place into 89 degrees with
>     75% humidity in direct sunlight.  I have exactly 35 minutes to
>     tune it.  I have now decided that this is impossible task!!  Even
>     brushing up unisons was a joke.  By the time I got an octave
>     higher, those below were out.  The bass, especially around the
>     break went out AS I was trying to bring in a unison on this
>     usually nice Yamaha C-3 which I've tuned many other times in a
>     controlled enviornment.  
>
>     I just tried to look "busy" for the time and then said "call it a
>     day" you get what you get, (to myself of course!)  At least my
>     budget gets $80 and my tan in a bit improved!!
>
>     These types of events should just use an electronic keyboard!
>      What a joke!!
>
>     Paul
>