Hi Terry: I'm sure it's obvious but have you checked the plate screws? Once I had a piano that kept going out of tune, severely, before I finished tuning and, as it turned out, the plate screws all were loose by a 1/4 to 1/2 a turn. Either that or the block is badly fitted. Also, all bets are off with pianos in churches. -Matt At 10:57 PM 5/25/02 -0400, you wrote: >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 >
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