Climate control systems in verticals

[Ron Torrella]

I don't have any customers with Dampp-Chasers in verticals (for that
matter,I'm struggling to think of more than one customer with a vertical
piano!) but the first thing that struck me after reading Bill's note was
the ability of a 25 watt heat bar to heat up strings and plate.

The bar must be awfully close to the plate!  Is it possible that a lower
wattage bar could be used?  I have had the (frustrating) experience of
tuning a piano that was directly in the path of the sun.  When the sun's
rays hit the strings and plate, I noticed that those particular strings
went slightly out of tune.  What was truly frustrating was that it was a
partly cloudy day.....so the tuning was in and out for the two hours I was
tuning the piano!  ARGH.

Answering Tom Seay's question about D-C systems installed under pinblocks:
Yes!  When I lived in south Florida we had to have a 15 (or was it 25?)
watt bar attached to the action stack in order to keep the Kawai 7' grand
from seizing up all the damned time!  Pulling the action (and putting it
back in) was a cinch.  Just make sure to feed the cord into the piano
when you're pulling the keyboard out and pull it out as you return the
keyboard to the cave.  I used to have one of my brothers man the cord
while I shoved and pushed.

Ron Torrella                  "Dese are de conditions dat prevail."
School of Music                           --Jimmy Durante
University of Illinois