Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Piano problems encountered.

Hi,

Thought it might be interesting or fun, to hear what each of you may have run into from day to day this past week or so? For example;

Monday, I had a call that a leg was broken on a grand. It's a Howard grand with the kind of leg that slides into a cast iron plate. Without removing it, I suggested possibly, the screws were yanked out from the force of NONE turning castor's or, it maybe something cracked. I suspect it is the screws. Will figure that one out at a later date when my son is with me to lift it and remove the leg.

Wednesday. Had ordered two strings from well, a well known company. They were 1/4" short of where the wrappings should have been but, happened to sound perfect anyway so, they remained installed.

Thurs: Filed hammers on a Schimmel vertical, spaced and aligned them. Complaint, notes not making the same sound on each blow. Cause? They had shifted just enough to hit between the grooves instead of in the middle of them. They are okay now.

Thurs: Condemned an old Hudson spinet with split bridges and loose tuning pins. Positive side? They are purchasing a new piano instead.

Friday: Tuned a piano in a school that was empty but for the Janitor and secretary. Guess what room he had to work in?

That's my boring week. What was yours like?

Let's see...

Had a clicking sound on a new Kawai UST-8. Thought it was the usual cause which is loose catchers. Surprisingly it wasn't. Turns out that the manufacturer had dribbled a little bit of glue onto the hammer butt leather. Scraped it off with a razor blade and bye bye click.

Had another clicking sound coming from the damper pedal on an old Yamaha P202. The cause was from a loose bracket, cause the metal lever to wobble back and forth as it moved. Tightened the bracket a bit to fit it to the lever. No clicky now.

Been a week of clicking noises. Had more coming from... *gasp* a BALDWIN! Could have been a million reasons for it but this one was from old, hard hammer butt leather. Informed the customer that all of them had to be replaced.

On a positive note I got to tune a nice Yamaha C7.

I tuned a 48 year old Kawai that was clicking and clacking like a wagon on cobblestones. Turns out, at least half of the hammer centers were loose in the flanges. It had the Yamaha type flanges with the steel plates, and it was an all wood action: pre ABS. The little plate screws had some rust and some were a bear to get out. I repinned all the hammers in the middle section. In addition, I adjusted the pedals and put a pin in the soft pedal dowel so that it would stay in place in the pedal lever. And the B 2 damper at the break was NOT lifting off the string either by pedal or by key, so I bent the wire, and voila. Tightened all the wippen screws, too.

The piano also had several loose tuning pins...I recommended that they not spend a whole lot more money on it, and put that saved money into a piggy bank for a new instrument. Not quite ready for the graveyard, but it will be in a few more years.

It musta lived in the desert.

Matt, I've seen that butt felt click more than a few times. I have used my chopstick voicing tool to reach in and break up the glue with a fair amount of success.

Good topic, Jerry. I often think about how tedious it would be to do nothing besides tune. I like diagnosing, repairing and regulating. It adds a sense of completion to the job, and it gives your ears a break!

Do the large castors on a grand piano get locked if the piano is left stationary for many years or should the castors be regularly lubricated.?
Just wondering

Loose pins... a big problem. I tuned (twice) a Howard Piano (not the old Ballwin Howard) but looked like a Korean or Chinese (no names anywhere, about 4”10”. A church gave it to him. This told me something. I replaced several of the wound strings first time tuning, didn’t notice loose pins. Second time there were 3 notes (last of the 3 string configuration) with all pins very loose, so loose that they would back up, would not hold the pull... The piano is ebony with a fine finish and look good and not more that a few years old. All other pins are tight. Daughter plays beautifully (about 16). Modest means. Somebody make a suggestion please.

I'm in Ocala all weekend doing rental D tunings for soloist John O'Conor www.johnoconor.com and the Ocala Symphony. The program includes Beethoven's 3rd Piano Concerto.

Andre Watts will play on this piano next week.

I powered this piano up earlier in the week due to lack of volume.

I'm sure I had some nasty pianos this past week, but once tuned, quickly forgotten.

I'm booked solid this coming week and have to tune several pianos and a harpsichord at the university early am before classes, or late eve after classes. Such is the life of a university tech!

Had a memorable one. Seiler 208 circa 1990. Donated to a Methodist Ch by an uber-rich who attends EXTREMELY rarely. Music minister took tuning course in Penn several years back and tunes church pianos.

Two regular pianists are my customers. Both are piano teachers and HATE the Seiler. For years they've been moaning about getting me to look at it. No way says I. Too many cooks in the kitchen. A month ago the uber-rich donor attends a funeral for a relative and hears the piano. KABOOM, he hits the roof. I get a call, come down here and fix this. I say, clear it with the church, music minister and whoever else. Don't need to step on toes, got plenty of other things to do.

I get to church. 29% RH. Piano sounds like a tin can. Every note has string buzz. No back bearing. Tighten plate bolts and get easy 3/4 turn from each before snugging. Helps the buzzes greatly. Way flat, tuned twice to A440, CLP balance rail, teflon dust knuckles. Some hammers catching on backchecks, check drop off. NONE. Cranked 4 complete turns on rep spring screws before any lift. Did all wips the same. (NO time to accurately regulate.) Helped greatly. Brushed hammers to take the "crust" off and sweetened the voicing quite a bit. All the work was "just to get it playable."

Music minister comes in. "Was it a bad as they said?" "Well...." says I and played a few chords. He says, "there, a octave below middle C. That's out of tune."

I take deep breath, slowly exhale. "If you read your PTG info it suggests checking with 3rds and 6th's for accuracy..." "Oh," he says, "I like it more pure than that."

"Look," says I, "we can argue about a lot of things, but this is how I make the big bucks. The tuning is fine."

Says he, "by the way, who called you?" Oh boy, here it comes. I pointed to the brass plaque on the side, "this fellow."

"Did he say who was to pay for the service?"

"No but he was supposed to clear the way for my visit." At this point, I'm ready to get the blazes on the road. I leave my bill, call the teacher/pianist, tell my tale and wish all involved well, long life and prosperity. Too many cooks in the kitchen.

Jay, use CA glue on those loose tuning pins. Pull out the action and put some newspapers on the keybed before applying the CA glue.

I had a good week. No interesting stories, no Wurlitzers, just Yammie grands, except for Wednesday. I had to pronounce last rites on a 1903 Mendelssohn Upright. Such a beautiful cabinet, but the the action was absolutely shot.
The owner didnt want to spend to resurrect it, if that is even possible. Like a 1965 Chevy with a brand new paint job, but with a rusty corroded engine. Gone to the junkyard, R.I.P!!!!

Somebody tell me how to post pictures here and I'll show you something you'll not soon forget from MY week...RPD

Don't ask me! I've never been able to figure it out! I can tune a planoooo but, I kan't do dis.

A long early morning tuning! I was asked to tune a S&S D this morning for a very large all day jazz contest and a university concert in the evening. The piano was to be played from 8:00 am until 9:30 pm. Since the contest was also on Friday, the only time I could get to this piano was before the Saturday contest started. Another tuner tuned for the Friday session. I started tuning at 6:00 am in the auditorium. I was the only one in the building. The piano was not in too bad shape, very uneven, but before I finished tuning, the heating system came on to raise the auditorium to daytime temperature. The room temperature went up 10+ degrees. When I finished the first tuning, the entire piano had dropped 8 cents so I started over. Then someone finally came and turned off the work lights and unlocked the light board and turned on the stage lights. By the time I finished the second tuning, the piano was only 3 cents flat top to bottom. I did a quick touchup and was ready to leave when the contest manager came in and said all the schools except one canceled for the morning session because of the blizzard conditions outside. I said “what blizzard conditions?” What was so strange was that every time the piano dropped pitch, it dropped evenly across all octaves except the very top end. I think I will charge a little extra for this tuning. At least, it was a very nice S&S D and did sound very good when I finished.

Hey, you can post pictures like this:

Go to http://www.tinypic.com and upload your images, then copy the link that it gives you and replace it for that link i placed inside the code box. Preview your post and it should be good to go.

You can upload to Piano World, too.

http://www.pianoworld.com/Uploads/fileuploader2.html

Ignore that stuff about choosing a contributor or something after you click submit. It doesn't work, and has no effect whatsoever on the upload. You'll get a personal email with the image's location.

"Somebody tell me how to post pictures here ..." RPD

_________________

It's a little tricky, especially if you're not familiar with html voodoo. I just put an image on my web hosting server and link to that.

If you do post a picture, try to get the file size under 200K to speed up the loading. There are still a few of us on dial-up connections with smaller monitors.

I think it's easier for dummies like me to just post it like I did before with the link to my online site. Tried it both bernardk & Horowitzian way and got so dang frustrated after an hour of farting around with it that I got mad and quit.

HAH well, I finally figured out how to post a picture but, deleted it... That's why the practice blanks in here... Sorry! Now, I have to figure out how to resize it cause it was wayyyyy to big!

Here's a picture I uploaded to Tinypic:



That's Horowitz's piano CD314503 for those who are curious.

It even will resize for you. Are you having some problem on your end preventing it from working, do you think?

Jerry in your Picasa3 you can use different sizes of pictures. The best would be the smallest size.....I think it is 640 X 480 or the other way around....the smallest one try that for starters..........also take Horowitzians picture for example. Right click on top of the picture. This will open up a window...go to the bottom and click on properties. This shows Horowitzian's picture of 500 X 332 pixels. You can right click on any picture on the internet and grab the details of the photo under properties....

Dan Silverwood
www.silverwoodpianos.com