Rainy day tuning: Was: pitch change

[Dale Probst]

Dear Clyde,

My standard refrain is "the sun will come out, tomorrow..." If I waited
for the weather to cooperate in Wichita Falls I would never tune a
piano, I would be waiting and waiting and waiting. I have watched for
the phenomenon you speak of and have noticed some drift. But pitch
raises, moving the piano out from the wall and other things cause this
also. I use TuneLabPro and record humidity & temperature every tuning.
TuneLab tells me how much the piano changes, the humidity & temperature
records tell me why. It's important to realize that if the weather
outside the house is affecting the instrument enough to be a problem
that you may also have friction problems in the action (the proverbial
sticking key). Then the customer gets one of the nice DamppChaser
brochures and we talk. But I know you know about DC!

Best,

Dale
Dale Probst, RPT
Member, TEAM2001
PTG Annual Convention
Reno, NV --July 11-15, 2001
email: wardprobst@cst.net
(940)691-3682 voice
(940) 691-6843 fax
TEAM2001 website: http://www.ptg.org/conv.htm

 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pianotech@ptg.org [mailto:owner-pianotech@ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Clyde Hollinger
Sent: Saturday, July 07, 2001 6:48 AM
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Subject: Rainy day tuning: Was: pitch change


Friends,

Years ago a client called me on the morning I was scheduled to tune her
piano.  She wondered if we should reschedule, since it was raining.  My
understanding at the time was that the tuning doesn't change that fast,
so not to worry about it.

But incidents such as Warren's would debunk that.  The past couple of
years I've heard of, and experienced, pianos changing even in the
process of tuning.  Jack Stebbins has a story about doing a concert
tuning.  He was part way finished when someone snapped the air
conditioning on, which changed the tuning before he finished.

What do you tell people on rainy days?

Regards,
Clyde

Warren Fisher wrote:

> Remember this piano had been very stable for years, but didn't have a 
> D/C system.  The C of  C  picked up the piano at 8a.m. and installed 
> it on the outside porch of their building.  At 10a.m., your's truly 
> arrived to do my thing.  A4 measured 13 cents sharp!!  The piano was
used by the C of C until it
> was returned to the caterer at 6:30p.m that day.   At 9a.m. the next
day, I
> measured A4 again at 18 cents sharp!!  For those of you still using 
> your forks, that's nearly a third of a half-step in 23 hours!