Pin Block Treatment

[Sy Zabrocki]

>From Sy Zabrocki--Billings, Montana

Ken Hale replied to a message pertaining to Ice Cream Spill (Nov. 23). =
He said the following:

For you "newbies" to our trade, glycerine is the main ingredient of the
infamous liquid tuning pin "tightener" still sold by some of the supply
houses, which turns pin block wood into mush and causes terminal rust to
any wire it touches.  Believe me, ignoring the problem is more
responsible than using that stuff!

With all due respect Ken, that statement is just upside down from what I =
have experienced in 38 years. There has been continual negative remarks =
about the pin block treatment for years. Some one has to brave enough =
(or stupid enough) to act as advocate for this procedure.=20

Loose tuning pins is a negative condition and the treatment is an =
undesireable procedure but it absolutely, positively does work. I =
doesn't work all the time. With experience you learn which pianos =
qualify for the treatment. It hardly ever fails for me. I use the =
treatment when the pins are just creeping and often set the pins along =
with the treatment. How do you know when the pins are creeping? You know =
by the strings which are more out of tune since the last tuning. You =
sense the feel of hardness in the block when test driving a pin.=20

Ken's statement says "the block turns to mush." How can I live with that =
statement when in all these years I just haven't seen it happen. How =
many years does it take for this mush to happen? If this is really true =
then I've mushed a mess of them. (My God, what have I done.) Oh well, =
they would all be in the land fill anyway.

There might be one important difference that could cause such a wide =
difference of opinion. In Montana we have what I call "dry pianos." The =
pins can be slightly loose but the block is still hard. "Wet pianos" =
have been subjected to high moisture for years and the block is already =
mushy. Naturally the treatment works better on the hard block. If you =
live in a humid region then your results would be consistently poor, =
which would cause all this negative attitude.=20

Ken's paragragh states the treatment causes "terminal rust." Again, I =
just haven't seen this to be true. I have seen in some cases a black =
sticky substance around the pins, but is that a problem if the pins are =
holding. What are we going to do with all these average pianos with this =
problem? Surely very few will be re-strung. Do we refuse to treatment =
them because we are too proud to use this procedure? Are we afraid that =
someone will find out? Not me. Time and time again I've gotten 10 to 15 =
years more out of a normally good piano. If the block is still hard you =
can even re-string after the treatment.

I could go on for pages on how I do the treatment but this message is =
already getting long. For now I'll just say I use only Garfield =
Restorer. It is applied with a needle spout and only a few drops applied =
each time over. I go through all pins four times. Only 2 to 3 ounces to =
a job. Don't run the stuff all over. In fact in most cases you wouldn't =
even know I was there. I wait three weeks before tuning.=20

I believe is was the late Paul Cheatum who gave a PTG class on this over =
20 years ago. What he taught was identical to my procedure.=20

I've tried to say all this without sounding argumentative. It's just an =
honest diagreement with Ken. Just because I defended the pin treatment =
doesn't mean I'm out there every day "doping" blocks.=20

How are we supposed to find time to post this stuff. I could have been =
on the web all this time. Did you ever compose one of these and then be =
afraid to click on SEND?

Sy Zabrocki RPT--Billings, Montana