I agree with Greg 1,000% - the fireplace is a killer (as in piano death, not just poor tuning stability - ten feet - ouch!). As for the key leveling, I have only one question to ask: what kind of center rail felt punchings are you using???? I used to use the various thicknesses of white felt center rail punchings for key leveling - untill I found that my key leveling jobs were going to.....er, ah, heck. Now I use the thin hitch pin punchings sold by the supply houses (I get mine from Pianotek). Thin felt - little compression - use the thickest and least number of paper punchings - and now I have key leveling that lasts (thanks Ron N. for this tip)! Terry Farrell ----- Original Message ----- From: "Greg Newell" <gnewell@ameritech.net> To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2002 7:37 PM Subject: Re: Kawai piano needs orthodonture > Tom, > First, the fireplace is a killer. Nothing will ever stay stable in the same > room as a bonfire. That being said the keys are a bit of a mystery unless , of > course, you iron the balance rail and front rail punchings prior to installation > like I do. I've never had a problem once I started doing that. Hope this helps! > > Greg > > Tvak@AOL.COM wrote: > > > Last year, I helped some good friends of mine find a piano. After a couple > > of months looking, I found a Kawai console which they purchased last January > > (2001). This piano dates back to the late 70s with one owner, a professor > > and musician; the instrument was in very good condition with little hammer > > wear. > > I tuned it for them and did a full regulation of the piano, including > > setting key height and key dip. Now, just 13 months later, the keys are not > > level any longer. And I'm not being picky here, this keyboard looks like it > > needs orthodonture. I would expect a leveled keyboard to last for years > > before it needed leveling again. > > What would cause this? > > I can guarantee there are no children banging on the keys, as the parents > > are professional musicians and I am confident that this would never take > > place in their home. The humidity level in their home is at 21%, which > > seems very low to me, but then, I leveled the keys last January when the > > humidity was probably close to the same. > > This piano also goes out of tune amazingly fast in spite of the pins > > being tight in the block. I can see why it would be out of tune from my > > last tuning in August, now that the humidity in the home is so low, but I > > tuned it one week ago and today there were 3 or 4 unisons which had drifted > > dramatically. This is not a one time event, either; I am always > > disappointed when I visit them to find how poorly the piano has held its > > tune. > > The piano itself seems fine to me. The work I did on it is the same work > > I've done on other pianos. I have mentioned to them that the low level of > > humidity was not good for the piano and could possibly be causing these > > problems and I got the fish-eye. I'm afraid they think that there's either > > something wrong with the piano, or me, and they're leaning towards me on that > > issue. > > Could the low humidity be at the bottom of all of this? The piano is > > NOT near a heat vent, it's even sitting on an inner wall. There is a fire > > place across the room about 10 feet away. They use it frequently. > > What's going on here? > > > > Any thoughts are appreciated. > > > > Thanks, > > Tom Sivak > > -- > Greg Newell > mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net > >
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