Extreme jumpiness

[Dean May]

What kind of piano is this? Are you sure it has a wooden pin block?

 

Dean

Dean May             cell 812.239.3359 

PianoRebuilders.com   812.235.5272 

Terre Haute IN  47802

  _____  

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Tom Sivak
Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2007 8:34 PM
To: pianotech
Subject: Extreme jumpiness

 

List

 

Have had the displeasure of tuning an old upright which has been restrung
with new oversized pins.  I was called in to tune it by the man who restrung
it; he asked me to CA the pinblock because the strings kept slipping flat.

 

So I went, CA in hand, and found that about 20 pins had fallen, some were a
4th under pitch!

I got out my tuning lever and pulled the offenders up to pitch and was
shocked to find how tight the pins were.  On some of the pins, I literally
had to use ALL MY STRENGTH to make the pin move at all.  (And I'm 6 feet
tall and 210 pounds.)  Then it would jump a whole step, and I'd try to coax
it back, but it would jump back down, too low, and...you know the routine.

 

The reason I'm writing is to gain some insight into this situation,
hopefully.  How can a pin be sooo tight that I have to extend my lever,
watch it bend as I apply pressure, hoping that my lever won't break, just
trying to get the pin to move...and yet not be able to hold?

Now, I've been there three times in the last two months.  The first time, I
did not apply any CA to the pinblock.  My God, they were so tight, yet jumpy
to the max.  Because it took so much strength to get the pin to move, it was
difficult to make any small movements.   I thought, with my superior tuning
lever technique, I would be able to get the pins to hold.  HA!  

 

Next time I applied CA to all the pins that had slipped.  After it dried,
they were tighter than ever, even harder to get them to move.  One month
later, about half of them had slipped again.  I re-applied the CA and was
there last week.  Only about 6 of them had slipped, but it still boggles my
mind.

 

Understand that it is just as difficult to get the pins to go flat.  I mean,
as you try and turn the pin, and it jumps to the sharp side on you, and then
you try to push it back down, and it jumps to the flat side, and you toggle
back and forth...it's just as hard to get the pin to move south as it is
north.

 

Any thoughts?  Tuning pins too big?  Cracks in pinblock? (Open faced pin
block, showing no cracks...)   Should I use WD-40 instead of CA?  (Just a
joke...just a joke...)

Tom Sivak

Chicago

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