Cliff Lesher wrote: > > I am wondering if anyone has seen this before: > > The piano: Chickering console, Serno 185664, Mfd ~1943. Located near > corner of inside and outside walls. Outside door nearby. House has no > a/c. > > Last winter, I was asked to look at this piano because, "the keys > weren't working right." During discussion, I learned that the piano had > been worked on when the owner lived in NC. The owner thought the > problem might have been caused during the move from NC to PA. > > My inspection revealed the key height to be extremely high. The keys > bottoms were above the keyslip, they were no longer "engaged" by the > front-rail pins, and the dip was nearly 3/4". It was no surprise that > there was severe hammer blocking. These conditions were worst at the > center of the keyboard and tapered toward each end. The keyboard crown > was readily apparent, looking like an exaggerated example to demonstrate > the concept. > > I concentrated on the balance rail and noticed that the punchings were > "normal" but the rail was shimmed up about 1/8". Taking the wholesale > approach, I removed the shims to see the effect. After doing so, > everything dropped right into place. All parameters were generally > correct. I closed the piano and left, but not without a feeling that > there might be more to this. I communicated this to the grateful owner. > > Sure enough, the follow-up call came in mid-July, on perhaps the most > humid day of the year. This time the symptoms were just the opposite: > zero dip, etc. My conclusion was that the humidity cycle affected the > keybed causing it to crown toward the floor in summer and return to > near-flat in winter. The shims went back in for the time being. > Humidity discussion followed. > > Questions: > > As stated earlier, has anyone seen this? > > Along with changing the location of the piano, will a climate control > handle this magnitude of change "outside the cavity?" > > Any other ideas? > > Cliff Lesher > Lewisburg, PA Cliff: I am a fellow Pennsylvanian and I have never seen anything approaching this amount of change. I can't quite imagine that this is due to humidity swings alone even if the un-airconditioned house is by a stream in the woods and is heated by a woodstove next to the piano (or a heat source behind/under the piano). But maybe it is. I still have lots to learn. If this were my client I would probably recommend a complete Dampp-Chaser installation, in this case possibly with a 5F or 7F dehumidifier under the keybed, stressing that this is the _first_ step in trying to solve the problem. I might also go back to visit the piano every two months or so, take some measurements, look things over. When you discover the solution, I for one would be interested in what you learned. Clyde Hollinger, RPT Lititz, PA
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