Jumpy pins (new one on me)

[Barb Barasa]

I had once attempted to tune a horrible old upright.  The owner had been so
diligent in "cleaning" it that he had not only taken out all the keys and
"washed" them on his driveway with, I think, a bucket of soapy water, but
had sprayed furniture polish across the tuning pins and "cleaned" around
them, too.  This piano had one of those cut-away plates so the wood was
exposed behind the pins, and I guess he wanted it to look good in there!
(As I recall -- altho I HAVE tried to forget -- the piano had been antiqued,
so I don't understand what he was thinking.)  The pins acted just as you
said.  I did the best I could and gave the piano its last rites.  Luckily,
he's never called me back.

Barb Barasa
Sycamore IL

>The entire piano had jumpy, sort of loose, tuning pins. Some were worse
>than others, but they would all hold. There were a few that, when bumped
>backwards, would go all the way down. But when I brought them back up, they
>held.

>   The only other time I've seen pins that jumpy was after some "tooner" in
>West Texas had sprayed WD-40 on the pins and coils to clean off the rust!!
>   Except for, possibly, the salt water humidity or block problems, I have
>no other ideas. IMHO, the piano isn't worth trying to do anything to. I
>explained the problem to the customer and advised them to start thinking
>about getting another piano in the near future.
>________________
>Avery Todd, RPT
>Moores School of Music
>University of Houston
>Houston, TX 77204-4893
>713-743-3226
>atodd@uh.edu
>________________
>
>