Allan: I had a customer with a 9' Bösendorfer who had a free standing humidifier next to the piano. In spite of the fact that students came into the room from outside every 30-minutes for their lessons, it was disappointing how seldom I got to tune that piano. Even when I was called to tune it I did embarrassingly little to it. dave David M. Porritt, RPT dporritt at smu.edu From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of allan at sutton.net Sent: Sunday, June 20, 2010 10:55 AM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Low humidity ok ? Thank you Terry, That precision : "different pianos, different solutions" seems very appropriate to me. Another question : Do many agree that a small external humidifier near the piano will help significantly in adding some humidity to every part of the piano when needed (soundboard and pinblock and action, in a grand piano), albeit as a second choice to whole room conditioning ? Allan Sutton, m.mus. RPT www.pianotechniquemontreal.com<http://www.pianotechniquemontreal.com> 2010/6/20 Terry Farrell <mfarrel2 at tampabay.rr.com<mailto:mfarrel2 at tampabay.rr.com>> Do many of you agree that stability is much more important than maintaining a specific Relative Humidity level in the piano? More important, yes. And that too much humidity is worse than too little? Maybe yes, and maybe no. Both should be avoided. All depends on piano - old piano with marginal soundboard crown and almost-loose tuning pins, higher RH might work better for it. New piano that performs well at a lower RH, low RH may be just fine for that piano. In other words, with an adjustable humidistat (Moisture King) and one or two heat bars we can keep Relative Humidity at 30 % or even 25 % and that is good, much better than swings from 25 to 85 % RH for example ? Steady 30 or 25% is better than 25% to 85% RH swings for sure. Steady 45% or 50% is likely better than 30 or 25% RH. Steady is best. Mid-range RH is best generally. However, if the piano in question performs better at a higher or lower RH, then an RH adjusted in that direction may be beneficial. Terry Farrell On Jun 20, 2010, at 11:17 AM, allan at sutton.net<mailto:allan at sutton.net> wrote: Dear list members, Do many of you agree that stability is much more important than maintaining a specific Relative Humidity level in the piano ? And that too much humidity is worse than too little ? In other words, with an adjustable humidistat (Moisture King) and one or two heat bars we can keep Relative Humidity at 30 % or even 25 % and that is good, much better than swings from 25 to 85 % RH for example ? I found nothing in the archives about this specific question. I hope to hear you about this in Vegas and here on the list. Thank you. Allan Sutton, m.mus. RPT www.pianotechniquemontreal.com<http://www.pianotechniquemontreal.com> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100620/c2666984/attachment.htm>
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