S&S D and a fair assessment

[Phil Bondi]

Hello all.

Recenty, a wire broke on this piano(G5-G#5 unison) during a show..hey, 
it happens right?

Anyway, a few days after the show, the tech director calls me to tell me 
that a string has broken and wants it fixed asap - not a problem. This 
is a piano I regularly care for.

The Piano was pulled out of its 'house'  in order for me to replace the 
string.  Where it was pulled to was just inside of the loading dock 
doors on a day when there was another show coming in..approx. 60% RH 
kind of day here.

The piano was in this environment for approx. 4 hrs total time. After I 
changed the wire, I told the tech director to please move this piano 
back in its 'house' asap. He assured me he would, and at this point, I 
am assuming that it was moved back quickly..we have a great relationship.

The first show after that incident was Friday Night. What I observed was 
the killer octave section(D5-G6) was pretty far out..much more than it 
normally is..ok...I tuned, spending a little more time on the repaired 
wire and this section in general.

Saturday Morning I get a call from the tech director telling me that the 
guest soloist was complaining about some "ringing in the piano". I was 
scheduled to be there at 5:30 to tune anyway...and I've been notified of 
a problem.

When I got to the piano at 5:30, what I observed was the killer octave 
section, in general, had really gone sour..and what the soloist was 
hearing, honestly, was the new wire G#5 unison falling just a bit..but 
what _I_ heard made me take notice and wonder:

-the whole section in general sounded bad. Would a broken wire in that 
section affect that section affect the bridge that much? I haven't seen 
that in the past. with other wire replacement on this instrument.

-The environment that the piano was in for approx. 4 hrs. was much 
harsher than its use to, and this is my gut feeling as to why the piano 
was a tad sick Friday night..or..

-is it possible that my pin-setting technique needs to be more 
critical(if that's possible) with this section of the D(I haven't seen 
this problem in the 5 years working with the instrument)..or..

-Is it possibly all of the above?

I'm scratching my head on this one, and if you have experience with the 
D in a similar concert setting, I'd like to hear your gut feeling.

Thanks,
Phil Bondi(Fl)