Repin or Reblock?

[Les Smith]

Greetings all! I would greatly appreciate some input concering a decision
 I have to make about whether to repin or reblock a piano.

The piano is a Steinway M that was rebuilt and refinished about 20 years
ago. Whoever did the work, did a beautiful job, but I was called in because
it will no longer hold a tune. Someone else tuned it about a week ago, and
within a day it was again unplayable. Whhen I saw it yesterday some of the
strings near the bass break had slipped by a half steo or so. Setting these
pins deeper into the pinblock threw out unisons all over the piano. I had
about 3/8 of an inch between the coil and the plate, so I set every single
pin as deeply as I could without having the coils touch the plate, and
after tuning it three times finally have it stable and holding at A-440.
This obviously just a temporary, "band-aid" solution, designed to buy a
little time, while I consider the question of whether to repin or reblock
it.

A careful examination of the pinblock reveals no signs of cracking or de-
lamination. What I did observe, however. was that the piano was in a win-
dow near a baseboard radiator, which I presume is the cause of the problem.
BTW, the first thing I did was to check the action centers by holding down
the damper pedal and pushing handfuls of keys down to bring the hammers to
the strings and then quickly releasing them. In an older Steinway I EXPECT
to find some sluggish action centers. The fact that I didn't served to re-
enforce my belief the the radiator was the cause of the problem. Whether
we repin or reblock the piano is going to be moved to another location and
a humidity control system is being installed ASAP.

When the piano was rebuilt, it was repinned with 4's, 2 3/8" long. The easy
solution for me would be to repin it again using 5's or 6's once we have the
humidity problem under control. However it's always been my practice in re-
building to replace the pinblock if reusing the old block would require pins
larger than 4's. Money's no object with the owner, althoug he is somewhat
concerned with the down time of his piano. In good conscience, can I just
repin with the larger pins, or don't 5's and 6's have any place in a fine
quality piano? Should I "bit the bullet" and just replace the block? Two
final considerations: one, this referral comes froma dealer who sends ALOT
of rebuilding work my way; and two, I am absolutely buried in work, so bring-
ing in this piano to replace the block is going to be a major pain.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Les Smith
lessmith@buffnet.net