Tuning Gone Bad: The Outcome

[Z! Reinhardt]

Have you tightened all plate bolts?

Does the deviation from pitch get worse the farther away you get from the
plate struts?

Is there a possibility that the piano is delaminating?  Perhaps running a
few well-placed bolts completely through the piano in the pinblock area
could help mash things back together again.

Or is the rest of the piano flexing as the plate flexes, as in the wood
frame being more for decorative purposes than for structural support?

Now throw that chicken on the grill and open that bottle of wine.

Z! Reinhardt  RPT
Ann Arbor  MI
diskladame@provide.net


----- Original Message -----
From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 25, 2002 10:57 PM
Subject: Tuning Gone Bad: The Outcome


Jimminy Gadzookas, that thar' pie-anner's got some problems.

I tuned this 1963 K&C 40" spinet three weeks ago. It was at pitch (I made
one quick pitch raise pass in the high treble) and I tuned it to A440. The
Pastor calls me a week ago and says the pianist said the piano has gone out
of tune in the middle area. I went out there today.

Bass: 2 cents flat. Tenor: most of it 25 cents flat - tapering to A440 pitch
at the break. Right back to 20 cents flat in the whole upper treble part.
Searched all over piano for cracked plate, lost backpost, etc. Everything
seems OK. Then I played 20 questions with Mr. Pastor Sir.

Turns out, the piano was moved the day before I tuned it (3 weeks ago) from
the old church building to the new church building. The new church has three
major AC units. Only one was going today, and it was nice an cool in there
(90 outside). I did not have a hygrometer to measure in the old and new
church, but I'm guessing that the old church is very high humidity, and the
new church is very low humidity. That may be the primary cause of the plain
wire sections of the piano to drop 20 cents.

But the piano was wierd. Bad wierd. I did a normal pitch raise, but the
center ended up 5 to 8 cents flat. I did a tuning pass, with pulling the
middle part up an extra cent or so to make all work out nice. The top half
of the middle section ended up 4 to 5 cents sharp. So I retuned that part
back down to pitch. Then the lower half of the middle section ended up 8
cents sharp! What's going on here!?!?!

Then I decided two things: 1) That thar' pie-anner's got some problems; and
2) I had better go the the store and get a bottle of wine and some chicken
to grill. So I did. Problem solved.

Sumthin's screwy in St. Loui! I suppose I'll find out more about it next
time they call. Oh well, interesting experience. I had never seen a piano
change like that because of a presumed humidity change. Or maybe the plate
is made of rubber.

Well, that's all I know.

Back to leading keys.

Terry Farrell