Stability problem

[Roger Jolly]

Greetings Roland,
                  I would suggest the following,
1. Take a hammer shank and gently tap the strings to the bridge, you will
be suprised just how much this will clean up the false beats, as well as
help to stabilize the tuning.
2. Take a set punch and check the bridge pins.
3. The hammers on this vintage are quite often toooooo hard, this helps to
degrade the tuning a little faster, also excessively bright hammers tends
to draw the users attention to tuning quality much quicker. In fact most of
the voicing jobs that I do, tends to stem from customer tuning complaints.
4. Check the plate bolts for security and tightness.
  Structural complaints with this model, have been almost non existent.
Voicing and bridge work is quite common.
  The really wild unisons, can be a tip off for badly seated strings. Did
you notice false beats in the centre section when tuning?
Hope this helps.
Roger


  If the pins seem tight and they are well set, you should be OK.
At 02:17 PM 1/10/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Hello everyone,
>A customer who is a piano teacher has a D H Baldwin grd C 152 made about
>1990.  When she called me to tune the first time 9/97 she mentioned that
>the piano seemed to go out of tune quickly.   When she called me early
>January 98 to tune the piano again, she said the piano had sounded fine for
>about 3 months then went out of tune so badly she counldn't stand it. I
>tuned it for her this morning 1/10/98 which was about four months after the
>first tuning.  The piano had gone way out of tune in the middle - the
>unisons were way out.  A3 had dropped from +1 cent (9/97) to -23 cents
>1/10/98.  Quite a bit for a seven year old piano that according to the
>customer, had been tuned about every 5 months from the time it was new.
>
>The pin block seemed a bit spongy when I tuned 9/97.  Today the pins moved
>more crisply but I felt that the piano had gotten a good solid tuning  each
>time.  She also has an old Wheelock grand in the same room which she uses
>to play duets with her students.  It seems to stay much more in-tune.
>
>Has anyone had tuning problems with the DH Baldwin model C 152?
>I'm trying to determine if the piano is just in a bad environment and needs
>humidity control, or if the tuning problems are structural or in the nature
>of this model.  The soundboard and bridges look fine.
>
>Any information appreciated.  Rolland Miller rmiller@en.com
>
>
>
Roger Jolly
Balwin Yamaha Piano Centres.
Saskatoon/Regina.
Canada.