water damage

[Thomas D. Seay, III]

>        It is timely that this topic was just recently up because I have a
>another question. How long does it take the water to pose a longer-term,
>high risk potiential of serious problems such as to not merit other
>significant work (i.e. an action upgrade)? If the water, lots of water,
>gets into a piano but only for minutes, and is aired out right away should
>we still just let it retire gracefully?

Back in 1981, the Yamaha/Baldwin dealer here in Austin had eight and a half
feet of water in their store. As you can imagine, the pianos were severely
damaged (understatement of the century!). As to the damage, the Yamaha
grands and verticals (Japanese made) fared the best. We restrung the
grands, put new actions and dampers in them, and used them as rental grands
for several years.

Even after 10 years of use, the only long term structural damage we ever
saw was a slight splitting of a few bridge pins on one of the grand pianos.
The soundboards, once the silt & fish were removed, were in almost pristine
condition, as were the finishes - just kidding about the fish. All the
major structural components of the piano seemed to survive intact, with
mostly cosmetic damage.

The Baldwin pianos, on the other hand, didn't fare quite as well. There was
pretty much nothing left of them. They suffered massive structural
problems, including delamination of pin blocks, bridges and ribs, as well
as complete action destruction. There was no way to save them at all.



Tom Seay
The Unversity of Texas at Austin

t.seay@mail.utexas.edu

"Don't worry about your music too much - whatever you write will end up
being played
 on an old upright (piano) in a bar anyway!"  - Marvin Hamlish