[CAUT] Pinning - was; rehearsal room climate swings

[John Minor]

Now THAT *IS* a good question I hadn't thought about, and a
bit depressing as well! That might explain tonal variations
from season to season, as well as the frequent "voicing"
changes that the good pianist are so sensitive to.

John

---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 18 May 2006 11:05:14 -0600
>From: "Jim Busby" <jim_busby at byu.edu>  
>Subject: RE: [CAUT] Pinning - was; rehearsal room climate
swings  
>To: <jminor at uiuc.edu>, "College and University Technicians"
<caut at ptg.org>
>
>Hi John, Ron,
>
>How does that (RH swings) affect your center pinning?? When
could you
>effectively repin? Pinning during low RH may cause the pins
to seize up
>during high RH, and loose pinning might occur with the opposite
>scenario.
>
>I recently repinned an M during 45%RH and when it went down
to 20% my
>5-7 grams went to 2-4 grams! (For you "swingers" it went from
about 3-5
>swings to 7-10 swings) Not only did this cause rep spring
problems but
>the sound of loose hammer pinning is different than good
pinning. (Chris
>Robinson/Rick Baldassin did some spectrum studies which
verified this.)
>
>This is a concern I've had which I don't remember ever being
addressed.
>I've just tried to "get by", but there must be some pinning
wisdom out
>there that I'm missing.
>
>Regards,
>Jim Busby BYU
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On
Behalf Of
>John Minor
>Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 1:23 PM
>To: caut
>Subject: [CAUT] rehearsal room climate swings
>
>I've been fighting wide swings in temp/humidity in university
>buildings for 13 years now and the tuning stability seems to
>get worse each year. One of our buildings recently underwent
>HVAC updates and the air exchange is now much more rapid that it
>ever was. I suspect this constant high volume flow of outside
>air around the pianos has a great deal of destabilizing effect.
>
>Has anyone tried using Edwards String Covers to shield the
>pianos from all that airflow? 
>
>Any ideas?
>
>John Minor
>University of Illinois
>
>The 2 images are from a DICKSON DATA LOGGER tucked under the
>soundboard of a Steinway B in large rehearsal room. It was set
>to log hourly readings.