Need Stable Advice

[Farrell]

Clyde wrote:

> I am not as pessimistic as Kevin regarding the church keeping the system
> plugged in, but he has a good point.  I have found unplugged systems,
> but in a minority of my installations.  At least one person in the
> church has to care enough about tuning stability to keep an eye on that
> plug.  If s/he finds a pattern of the system unplugged, then it's time
> for detective work to find out what's going on and find a remedy.

I've always wondered about how to keep something plugged in on a piano in a church, or any institutional setting. I don't think it will be reliable to find that one person at the church to keep an eye on it. So many of the churches that I service pianos for have a new pastor, a new music minister, new secretary or whoever every time I go there it seems. I don't have any good solutions to offer, but it seems that we need some type of mechanical control over it. Like the fallboard is connected to the DC system. If the DC system is not plugged in, the fallboard will not open. That may be hard to implement, but you get the idea. Any thoughts? Maybe a 9-volt powered siren or flashing red light that goes off when the DC system is unplugged - that might work. This is especially germane for the performance institution where the piano is rolled off stage to a storage area and then back on stage for a performance.

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Clyde Hollinger" <cedel@supernet.com>
To: "Kevin E. Ramsey" <kevin.e.ramsey@cox.net>; "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2003 6:23 AM
Subject: Re: Need Stable Advice


> Dave,
> 
> Three possibilities enter my mind here.
> 
> 1.  How far out of tune was the piano the second time you tuned it?
> Some folks have a very low tolerance for any change at all, and even
> with a complete Dampp-Chaser installation they will not be satisfied
> with the stability.  I will never forget hearing Jack Stebbins recount
> the time he almost had a concert tuning finished when someone switched
> on (ah!  which was it now?) either the air conditioning or the stage
> lights.  The tuning changed before he left the room.  Yes, it can change
> that quickly, and I don't think any Dampp-Chaser installation is going
> to help that.
> 
> 2.  Sometimes no one has actually noticed that the piano tuning
> changed.  They call just because for an important event they want to be
> sure it is not out of tune to avoid potential embarrassment.
> 
> 3.  What is the weather like in Washington state?  If the humidity level
> is always above 40%, my opinion is that you do not need a complete
> Dampp-Chaser system with the humidifying components, but the heat bars
> and control unit are likely to result in an improvement, if there's not
> an air current near the piano.  In that case use an undercover also.
> 
> It is unclear to me from what you wrote if you thought you might be able
> to get away with just the heat bars and *no* humidistat.  That would be
> a bad idea.  With no humidistat there is no way to control the drying
> power.
> 
> I am not as pessimistic as Kevin regarding the church keeping the system
> plugged in, but he has a good point.  I have found unplugged systems,
> but in a minority of my installations.  At least one person in the
> church has to care enough about tuning stability to keep an eye on that
> plug.  If s/he finds a pattern of the system unplugged, then it's time
> for detective work to find out what's going on and find a remedy.
> 
> Regards,
> Clyde Hollinger, RPT
> Lititz, PA, USA
> 
> "Kevin E. Ramsey" wrote:
> 
> > Dave, what can I say? Churches are notorious for this. No, a
> > damp-chaser isn't going to help, because the piano doesn't "belong" to
> > any one person, therefore, no-one is going to be looking after it, and
> > making sure it's plugged in. (Which it won't be, off and on).  The
> > fact of the matter; pianos like being where humans live, and in the
> > same conditions. Churches often, because of economics, turn the AC
> > off, or way down when the church is not being used. Makes sense to me,
> > but it's not good for the tunings.    The bottom line here is;
> > Unstable environment=Unstable piano. But, that's just one person's
> > opinion. Kevin
> >
> >      ----- Original Message -----
> >      From: Dave Davis
> >      To: Pianotech
> >      Sent: Saturday, March 08, 2003 4:55 PM
> >      Subject: Need Stable Advice
> >       Hi List,
> >
> >      Hope this isn't too long, I'll try to include lots of
> >      info.
> >
> >      Just before Christmas I got a call from a big church
> >      needing an "emergency" tuning the next day (Sunday)
> >      for a big program with full orchestra.  Since I'm
> >      "less experienced", I had time to do it.  The piano,
> >      1980 Yamaha C7 gray market, had been tuned 2 weeks
> >      before.  It seems that they've had it about 3 years
> >      and it won't stay in tune very long.
> >
> >      I carefully looked for structural problems and gave it
> >      my best, stablest tuning (no laughing, please) and got
> >      done as the orchestra was showing up.  I figured I'd
> >      never hear from them again.
> >
> >      They called this week to schedule the next tuning.
> >      Seems that I did something right, and they're hoping
> >      I'll be able to make it more stable.
> >
> >      My "less experienced" feeling is that it's a climate
> >      issue.  The church has a roll back ceiling, so even
> >      though we don't have big humid/dry changes, it
> >      probably has access to more changes than most rooms.
> >
> >      Dampp Chaser might be the answer, but in my chapter,
> >      there is only one guy (that I have found) who uses
> >      them, and he only uses just the rods with a
> >      humidistat.  If it had only the rods, would it dry the
> >      piano in such a way that it would experience the same
> >      problems as gray market pianos in dry climates?
> >
> >      Got any other ideas?  Am I missing something?
> >
> >      Thanks,
> >
> >      Dave Davis
> >      Renton, WA
> >      Assoc. PTG
> >
> >
> >
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