Robert, I agree. I suppose I'm lucky in one way here in Houston. Even though our OLD chilled-air air-conditioning system makes for a fairly humid environment it is fairly constant 10 months or so out of the year. Our winter is so short that I rarely have to deal with any wide fluctuations of pitch. Actually, everything stays pretty constant. So, as a result of that, I pretty much spread my tunings out over the entire year, except for special programs, recitals, piano teachers, etc. We just broke ground for a NEW MUSIC BUILDING yesterday and it is supposed to have much better humidity control, even though we will have the same type of system. What I'm concerned about is what is going to happen to most of our 100+ pianos that have been in this humid (usually 50% to 70%) environment all their lives. I expect a lot of tuning after they have acclimated to the new building, but what I'm more concerned about is loose tuning pins as they dry out some. I saw a Baldwin Acrosonic that had been in Houston 20+ years and then the owners moved to Abilene, TX (a much drier climate in West Texas) and within a year it was not even tuneable. Hopefully, this change won't be that drastic. Avery Todd University of Houston atodd@uh.edu
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