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Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 1,135
1000 Post Club Member
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Posts: 1,135 |
Bob that is THE secret why church pianos stay at all in the winter. Low temp, higher humidity. Tough working conditions sometimes but it work out.
Bill I too wear short sleeve year round. Can't work in long sleeves. Also as soon as the outside temps get anywhere near 60 it's shorts till the snow flies again.
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 4,028
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I tune all of the pianos at the Frank Lloyd Wright estate near here. They all leave in October and go to Arizona. The buildings aren't heated during the winter, so the pianos go as cold as the buildings get which is below 0ºF. However, when I return in June to tune them, they are always right at A-440.
One grey market Yamaha they have in a chapel always gets all stuck with verdigris. I found that cutting the Protech 50-50 with pure acetone really cuts the muck and makes the piano play well all season.
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Joined: May 2004
Posts: 864
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500 Post Club Member
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Posts: 864 |
Hi, Keith -- Thanks for your comments. I hope to hear more from the pianist, who hired me herself (she's a longtime customer) after vainly trying to get the theater to tune the piano. During the tuning, I kept thinking, would the strings render better if the hall were twenty degrees warmer? It was one of those little Chinese grands with a sudden string rise to get from the agraffe to the pins, not to mention a tight block. Bringing strings up to pitch was hard, lowering pitch from above was hopeless. I can't imagine that string flexibility is that dependent on temperature, but I did wonder.
Dorrie Bell retired piano technician Boston, MA
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Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 6,425
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When you think about it, if a building in not heated, the temperature changes more and the humidity less. I think the swings in humidity do more damage than the swings in temperature. As far as changing the tuning, I suppose that depends on how "hydroscopic" the sound board is.
Jeff Deutschle Part-Time Tuner Who taught the first chicken how to peck?
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Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 527
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Posts: 527 |
UnrightTooner. I think you may mean hygroscopic.
Im not aware of any measuring device to assess how "hygroscopic" a soundboard is.
[moisture meters only measure moisture content they dont asess the hygroscopic nature of the material itself]
I think the only way that the hygroscopic nature of soundboard could be assessed would be in relation to notional external prevailing air conditions plus some idea of timber density and species. Even then its accuracy would be questionable given the non-homogenic nature of timber.
If you know of some device or methods for assessing the hygroscopic qualities of timber I would be extremely interested to know.
Thank you
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Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 4,555
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Originally posted by Mocheol: UnrightTooner. If you know of some device or methods for assessing the hygroscopic qualities of timber I would be extremely interested to know.
Thank you I don't even know the definition of hydroscopic. But measuring the moisture content of wood is dead simple. You just touch it with a moisture meter, it measures the electrical conductivity and gives you a read out in percentage moisture. We used them all the time when I worked for the paper industry.
gotta go practice
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Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 6,425
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6000 Post Club Member
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Posts: 6,425 |
Yes, I meant hy groscopic. I have forgotten how many times I have corrected other Deck Officers on this. Just measuring the moisture content will not tell you how much moisture a material may absorb. Or how much a soundboard's crown, and therefore the piano’s pitch, will change.
Jeff Deutschle Part-Time Tuner Who taught the first chicken how to peck?
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Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 527
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In the absence then of precision instrumentation to assess soundboard or other piano timbers does the whole thing then not boil down to a question of individual judgement based on experience and perhaps some moisture readings.?
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Joined: May 2001
Posts: 190
Full Member
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Full Member
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Every year the Sunday of or before Christmas I get up at three thirty in the morning and visit several churchs to do Harpsichords that are loaned or rented for cantatas or Handel's Massiah. The only way to survive is to demand the church turn on the heat over night and a fresh tuning in the wee hours of the morning. Never had a complaint about a harpsichord not staying in tune for the full show.
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Joined: May 2004
Posts: 864
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Good news to report -- the pianist for the concert on Jan. 17 that I wrote about above called to say that the piano was most satisfactory and the concert went very well. I am relieved. Thanks for the support I got here.
(I think that my phone messages to the pianist before and after the tuning, so that she would know I had arrived and then know that the piano had been tuned, didn't hurt. A less anxious customer is a happier customer.)
Dorrie Bell retired piano technician Boston, MA
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Piano
by Gino2 - 04/17/24 02:34 PM
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Piano
by Gino2 - 04/17/24 02:23 PM
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