John, I can't tell for sure if you understood Stephen correctly. He says the crack is about the width of a thin bass string, so perhaps 1/16" or 2mm or so. From your writing it almost sounds as if you thought the crack itself was up to 1 1/2" wide. That would indeed be a disaster; I never saw a back separation that big. As far as the small separation goes, I agree that it should be repaired before the piano is tuned again. But if the pitchraise and tuning is already done, is there any harm in just leaving well enough alone? I agree that lowering the pitch right away would be the safest route to go, but I've seen two separated backs of more than a half inch, and in neither case did the plate break (surprisingly). Regards, Clyde John Ross wrote: > I am quite concerned, about the space of 1" to 1 1/2" behind the pinblock. > This could be pinblock separation, and is a disaster, waiting to happen. In > my startout years, I had a plate break from just such a situation. > If this is a correct assumption, I would lower the pitch, immediately. Until > the pinblock can be clamped, and epoxies together with bolts completely > through to the back. > From: "Stephen Airy" <stephen_airy@yahoo.com> > <snip> ...when I opened the lid on the > > Gulbransen, I noticed (I think that's the pinblock on > > top cause I saw a few layers of wood that were > > different colors near the tuning pins) that there are > > a couple cracks in the middle of the top of the > > pinblock, and a quite wide one (big enough to stick a > > thin bass string through) at the treble end toward the > > back. They were a good inch and a half to two inches > > behind the laminations. Is this anything to be > > concerned about, or do pinblock cracks only affect > > tuning stability when they're closer to the pins
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