Piano won't stay in tune

[Z! Reinhardt]

Duaine -

Welcome to the list!  We love newbie questions -- they are what keeps the
rest of us honest.

Now for your questions ...

Why won't the piano stay in tune?  Are you going by the customer's word or
have you tried tuning it yourself?  My suggestion is to go meet the piano
and its owner to figure out for yourself why it won't stay in tune.  It
could be loose tuning pins.  It could be a lot of other things, or some
combination of things.

It could be that the "last guy" was tuning it for the first time in a number
of years and hence the piano was very unstable.  It takes many tunings over
a period of about a year to stabilize a piano at pitch, something the
customer was probably not too thrilled about paying for.

If the piano had indeed been neglected for a long period of time, it could
be that it is literally disintegrating, in that the plate is pulling away
from the pinblock and taking some of the pinblock laminations with it.
Afterall, there is nearly 20 tons total tension from one end of the piano to
the other in one that is at pitch.  Any disturbance of the piano's
structural integrity will show up in the piano's ability to hold a tuning.

There could be issues with the soundboard and bridges I'll let others on
this list talk about.

And, if indeed the problem is loose tuning pins, the stuff of choice is CA
glue.  The Pin-Tite (and related products) you referred to are bad news,
because they work by attracting moisture to the site.  The stuff never
dries, and is prone to having a lot of dust/dirt get caught in it.  If that
isn't enough, it can't be cleaned out of the site.  After awhile, the
moisture will rot the wood in the pinblock ... not a pretty picture.

CA glue has been talked about a lot on this list -- check the archives.
There are a lot of theories of how it works and why it works as well as it
does.  Just be sure you work with good ventilation, and that anything you
don't want glued together is well out of the way.

Good luck, and let us know what you find.

Z! Reinhardt  RPT
Ann Arbor  MI
diskladame@provide.net

----- Original Message -----
From: "Hechler, Duaine & Laura" <dahechler@mlc.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 03, 2002 1:41 AM
Subject: Piano won't stay in tune


Newbie question.

I tuned a piano for a lady and she told me that the guy before me told her
that the piano won't stay in tune.

I was looking through the Schaff catalog and saw some stuff called "Pin
Tite".

Is that what I need to buy ?

If so, do I put a drop at each pin next to the pin block ?

Thanks,
Duaine