Extreme jumpiness

[Mike Spalding]

Marcel Carey wrote:
> Sounds to me like the piano owner is trying to touch up the tuning. If the pins are as thight as you say, an amateur could create the problem you're describing.  
I agree that this can easily be the cause.  Recently got a call from a 
new customer, who had purchased a grey market C7 over the internet.  He 
was putting together a list of warranty issues for his final 
negotiations with the seller, and one of the items was loose tuning 
pins.  Using his student lever, he could easily change the pitch of the 
strings.  Turns out, he was only twisting the tops of the pins.  Piano 
had been restrung, the new oversize pins were either longer, or driven 
deeper than the originals.  To turn the whole pin took about 150 inch 
pounds, but he was able to do a "tuning", at much lower torque, and the 
piano quickly went back out of tune.

Mike