Speaking of Dampp-Chaser

[Ron Nossaman]

While we're trolling bad puns past Dampp-Chasers and getting 
entirely too many bites, I have something less fishy (maybe) 
concerning pianos with D-Cs.

Here's the deal. Yamaha P-22s in church "classrooms", each 
with a full D-C installation and floor length cover. These 
things are Sooooo much more stable since the D-C installations 
(and eventual owner education as to the need to water them 
occasionally), but other interesting repercussions arise. When 
I take the cover off, and hopefully don't find both water and 
pad lights blinking like I did every time during the first two 
years, a great cloud of warm moist air billows up out of the 
piano when I lift the lid. It's at least 10°F warmer in the 
piano than the room temperature. Removing the front board lets 
the cooler air get to the strings, and I get to wait about 15 
minutes before everything settles down enough to tune it, or I 
chase the temperament back and forth for 15 minutes anyway. 
This happens in the grands too, but not as dramatically. So 
what I typically do is to start with the grand in the 
sanctuary. I remove the cover and prop the lid up, then go 
remove the cover and open the lid of one of the P-22s. By the 
time I get back and get the grand strip muted, it's mostly 
calmed down enough to tune. When I'm done with the grand, I 
close and cover it, and go remove another cover and raise the 
lid of the next P-22, then go tune piano #2 while #3 is 
blowing off steam.

While this effect is extreme when the pianos are covered to 
the floor, it's also noticeable in pianos with D-C systems 
without covers. I don't recall this ever coming up on the list 
before, though it probably should have a dozen times unless 
it's just a local anomaly of my personal universe. And yes, 
it's still far better than without D-Cs, but I wonder what the 
folks using these pianos hear when they pull the covers off 
and start playing.

I'm an aural tuner, used to fudging and blending rather than 
calculating and interpolating, so it's just a nuisance to me. 
What do you state of the art three decimal ETD users do with 
these, or do you just start at A-0 and the strings have 
settled down by the time you get past the bichords?

Curious,
Ron N