Tuning Gone Bad: The Outcome

[Farrell]

Yes, not really, piano seems to be in one piece, chicken was great.

I'm just going to lay low on this one and wait until they call - either in a week or two because it's way out of tune again, or if it holds......a couple of years when they normally tune again.

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Z! Reinhardt" <diskladame@provide.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, May 27, 2002 4:26 PM
Subject: Re: Tuning Gone Bad: The Outcome


> 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
> 
> 
>