piano in window

[Dean L. Reyburn, RPT]

Wim Blees wrote:
>A customer of mine is having a house remodeled, and wants to put her grand in
>the middle of a large south facing picture window. She is having the window
>treated with the new 3M product that, according to the company, shields out
>98% of the ultraviolet rays, and reduces the heat transfer.
>
>2 questions:
>1. Is it the ultraviolet rays that cause the fading of a finish?
>2. does anyone have any experiecne with this stuff to know whether or not it
>reduces heat enough so that a piano will not be effected?
>
I have a customer with Yamaha GH1B who insisted on putting the piano in a
big bay window facing south west.  I told them that they would have to
have it tuned *real* regular with that placement because of the direct
sun.  The piano is black, which makes it act like a big solar furnace.
They told me that the windows were specially treated to reduce the
ultraviolet rays.  I was dubious, to say the least.

I have tuned this piano a number of time since, about every 6 months, and
it has held its tune remarkably well.  Normally GH1's will go radically
out of tune just above the bass treble break (unless modified) if the
conditions are less than ideal (ie normal here in MI <g>).

This one has held fine when it shouldn't hold a tune at all.  I can only
attribute this to the window UV treatment.  I don't know if it is 3M or
not, and since the piano is black, I don't know if fading would have
occured with a wood finish piano.

Hope that helps.

Dean

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Dean L. Reyburn, RPT                    Sanderson Accu-Tuner
 REYBURN PIANO SERVICE, INC.             Authorized Distributor
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 Cedar Springs, MI  49319  USA           for Piano Technicians"
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