Dear Pianotech people: Actually, the subject maybe should have been Henry Herbert player piano. Anyway, I was called to tune one of these the other day. It was about 110 cents flat. The first thing I did after removing the action and such was to dab a drop of protech at each bearing point on the V-bar. At first I was timid and only raised the pitch up to 80 cents flat. However, I discovered much to my delight, that protech worked so well that I would raise it to -50 cents flat. I never heard one ping of a string breaking from its bearing point. Considering I hear this on new pianos even, when I have to pitch raise them, that was quite remarkable. As for the piano itself, which was made in the very early 20th century, it seems in remarkably good shape, if no work has been done on it for quite some time. It is very dirty inside, and the action generally worn. The tuning pins, although not tight like a new piano, were reasonably tight to hold the pitch. Other than the tuning, the first thing that is necessary it to replace the hammers. My question is, is it worth it? Replacing the hammers would go a long way to restoring the tone, although the strings probably should also be replaced because the bass strings are still the steel type. I gather that the owners don't really want to spend too much on the piano. I also have a second question. When I pitch raised, no strings broke, and the piano seemed to respond well. The pitch droped between 20 to 30 cents during the pitch raise of basically 50 or 60 cents. I felt this was acceptable, since the drop was quite even. How safe is it to raise the pitch to A440? Is there any way I can find out the original standard for the pitch of this piano? Thanks in advance for your input! Laurence Beach Vancouver BC Canada.
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