Falconwood At 12:28 PM 1/29/2006, you wrote: >Well I appreciate having the charge of being unethical withdrawn. ;-) > >On the subject of pins loosening with frequent tuning. I think the problem >is poor wood selection in the pinblock. Some pinblocks stand up very well to >repeated tunings. Others do not. I've noticed for example that Story and >Clark studio pianos seem to quickly turn to mush. Repinning with oversize >will work for about 5-8 years then they start getting loose again. Now I use >CA glue which seems to work better. > >Extremely hard blocks also seem to not hold up well to frequent tunings. >When the wood is so hard the pin cannot be fitted with as much interference >as with on a softer block. Less interference (i.e., larger hole >drilled)means there is less tolerance for variation of hole sizes in >drilling, and less tolerance of variations of tuning pin sizes. This adds up >to less tolerance for wearing of the wood with frequent tunings. Just my >intuitive analysis. I'm starting to notice this with one or our 3 D's that have been rebuilt using a Falconwood pinblock. I now have several pins on one of them that are getting very loose/jumpy, whatever. Primarily in the bass. But it shouldn't be happening after only 10+ yrs.! IMO. The humidity doesn't vary all that much but they are tuned (or at least touched up) several times a week. Usually! Avery >I've done experiments with cabinet makers plywood, very strong and lots of >laminations. But it is entirely unsuitable for a pin block. Just a few turns >of a tuning pin and the torque quickly evaporates. Anyway it just affirmed >to me that the quality of the block is critical for frequent tuning. Others >on the list are eminently more qualified than I to judge what varieties and >grain selections constitute a quality and long wearing block. > >Dean >Dean May cell 812.239.3359 >PianoRebuilders.com 812.235.5272 >Terre Haute IN 47802 > > >-----Original Message----- >From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf >Of timothy ehlen >Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2006 12:33 PM >To: Pianotech List >Subject: RE: frequent tuning - floating pitch? was tuning > >Interesting ideas that I hadn't considered. Although I have >not encountered this kind of difficulty with pitch >fluctuation on my own pianos, both new and re-built (despite >living in Cleveland and now Illinois for quite a few years >now), I can appreciate the perspective of technicians with >more experienceand your experience dealing with fluctuating >climates. I agree that in cases where pitch tends to >fluctuate in a problematic way, stability would be a higher >priority than tuning to A440. > >I've never really considered this, however...I always >thought a piano was "in tune" if it was at 440 and the >notion of "pitch correction" seems to be another way of >saying "tuning." (I tend to think of the "pitch raise" as >the result of years of failing to have the piano tuned, in >which case an extra charge seems reasonable. I know I won't >get much support for this notion on this list though:) > >I would assume that pianos naturally fall a bit flat over >time, but if they are really swinging this far sharp during >the summers, then that's another matter altogether, I >suppose. Based on your responses, I would modify my >previous view that it is not ethical to leave a piano at >anything other than A440, although I still hope this is the >norm in most cases. > >About my suggestion of pinblock wear, this was the only >possible problem that I could think of with very frequent >tunings, based on the loosness of some pins on concert >grands that I've encountered, including my own CD. I would >assume that a re-stringing would need to be done earlier on >these instruments that have regularly been tuned weekly or >even daily, comparing with the normal grand that gets 2-4 >tunings per year. > >Tim > > > >_______________________________________________ >Pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives > >_______________________________________________ >Pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
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