Condition (1.3) - Excellent: Piano needs regular maintenance - regulation, tuning and voicing. (1.0) - Good: Piano needs some minor reconditioning - hammer filing, key bushing, minor action pinning, regulation, tuning, voicing. (0.8) - Good/Fair: Piano needs major reconditioning - hammer replacement, major action repinning, key re-bushing, regulation, tuning, voicing. (0.6) - Fair: Piano needs partial rebuilding - new hammers and other action parts, restringing with existing pinblock, regulation, tuning and voicing. (0.4) - Fair/Poor: Piano needs major rebuilding - new pin block, soundboard repair, new strings, tuning pins, action parts, regulation, tuning and voicing. (0.2) - Poor: Piano needs complete rebuild/remanufacture - new soundboard and bridges, pin block, new strings, tuning pins, action parts, regulation, tuning and voicing. [Note: Categories Fair through Poor should only be applied to pianos that will receive the described level of work.] Rebuilding Parameters (0.4) Piano will receive complete rebuilding/remanufacturing, including new soundboard and bridges, and possibly new keyboard. (0.6) Piano will receive major rebuilding, including soundboard repair and new pinblock. (0.8) Piano will receive minor rebuilding, including restring with original pinblock, complete action parts replacement. (1.0) Piano will receive major reconditioning, including new hammers and possibly shanks/butts, major repinning. (1.2) Piano will receive minor reconditioning, filing hammers, rebushing keys, regulation. [Note: Each category represents the maximum rebuilding/reconditioning care the individual piano will receive. These parameters are expected to apply over the life of the piano, and to apply to work done at the institution.] Climate Control 1.4 - Excellent: 5% maximum variance in relative humidity (generally achievable only with complete humidity control unit installed and well-maintained, with back covers on uprights, string and bottom covers on grands; and with ambiant humidity within 20%) 1.2 - Very good: 10% maximum variance in relative humidity (or has complete humidity control unit installed and well-maintained, with back covers on uprights, string and bottom covers on grands) 1.0 - Good: 25% maximum variance in relative humidity (or has complete humidity control unit installed and well-maintained) 0.8 - Fair: 40% maximum variance in relative humidity 0.6 - Poor: 60% maximum variance in relative humidity 0.4 - Very Poor: variance in excess of 60% [Notes with respect to piano installed humidity control systems: 1) It is likely that a complete system without back/bottom/string covers can bring a piano into the “Very good” category if the variance in the building is no more than 30%. Some discretion should be used in assigning categories. 2) "Half systems" (a humidistat with a dehumidifying unit) can help in situations where ambiant humidity rises above 50% on a regular seasonal basis. In general, such a system might improve tuning stability by one step. Complete systems are strongly recommended wherever possible under most conditions where humidity varies more than 15%. 3) There is a certain amount of maintenance time involved for complete systems. Most of this maintenance is unskilled, and can be accomplished by, say, a work study student, thereby freeing up technician time. 4) Systems must have the appropriate wattage and position of components, as recommended by the manufacturer, to produce the predicted level of effectiveness.
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