Dan Rue writes: >>upright in basically playable condition except for the tuning. The >>plate has a crack near the treble break that starts at a tuning pin >>& terminates at a plate bolt below the pressure bar. The whole >>piano is about 50cents low & is even lower in the treble above the >>crack. Two schools of thought I've heard on plate cracks: 1) Run the other direction! Or at least, make no attempt whatsoever to do anything with the string tension except to quickly and systematically drop it all (to at least an octave below tension). 2) Assess if the crack actually is located someplace that does brace against tension. Sometimes one appears in the tuning pin region and has no apparent effect on stability. Your crack, however, continues south of the pressure bar and you have a pitch discontinuity as evidence that it does matter. Go to (1)! Audrey Karabinus, Seattle
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