[CAUT] pin block strangeness

[Ed Sutton]

Chris-
Don't rush to condemn!
Tighten the plate screws, tune, measure the humidity, give it a chance to
stabilize.
If it's a typical discount price deal, it was probably tuned once out of
the crate and delivered. 
Ed S.


> [Original Message]
> From: Christopher Purdy <purdy@ohio.edu>
> To: College and University Technicians <caut@ptg.org>
> Date: 3/14/2005 10:00:46 AM
> Subject: [CAUT] pin block strangeness
>
> I ran into a new one the other day.  A local dealer has pianos made for 
> them by Dong Bei in China.  I was asked to make a service call on a 
> small grand that was sold to a church.  This was my first encounter 
> with one of these pianos.  The local tuner was having trouble with 
> tuning stability and they asked me to have a go at it.
>
> Overall, it looked fairly well built and pin torque was very 
> consistent.  String rendering had a mushy feel to it but I was able to 
> set pins.  It seemed stable while I tuned and sounded like a million 
> bucks when I was finished.  The other tuner had told the dealer that 
> the piano was going out of tune even while he was working on it so I 
> was very meticulous with my tuning and was looking everywhere for an 
> answer.
>
> Then I found something that blew me away.  I checked the pin block fit 
> and found that the block does not even touch the flange, at any point.  
> Not only could I put a business card in the gap, bass to treble, but 
> there was a huge gap.  I could have put the thickness of three or four 
> cards in it with no problem.
>
> The previous tuner had just tuned the piano eight days before and when 
> I got there the treble was a good 25 cents sharp.  I do not know this 
> tuner so I can't speculate about his experience. I asked a ton of 
> questions about humidity and temperature fluctuations and I gather that 
> it has been pretty stable.  They do not turn off the heat during the 
> week, etc.   I am going back this week to check my tuning.  I can't 
> imagine it's going to be stable with no attempt whatsoever at pin block 
> fitting.
>
> Have any of you seen anything like this?  I know there is a lot of 
> griping about the pianos coming out of China but the rest of the piano 
> really looked fairly well made.  The piano is named Steinhauer and is 
> made exclusively for this dealer.  I would be very interested in 
> hearing any experiences you may have had like this.  If I go back there 
> and my tuning is FUBAR I am going to have to condemn this bird.  I have 
> a good relationship with this dealer but I smell trouble.
>
> Mitch, have you dealt with any of these yet?
>
> Chris
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