rusted piano strings

[Farrell]

You don't need to reach the dew point for rust to form. High humidity is all 
it takes. The higher the humidity, the faster corrosion will occur.

Down here if Florida I don't find too many pianos with unusually rusty 
strings in homes where windows are mostly kept shut. Where is see it 
commonly is in homes where the occupants have a habit of opening windows 
often - sometimes they are horribly rusted.

Yes, I see more rust on strings in churches. I don't think that is related 
to turning on the AC and causing a change in environment, but rather the six 
days (less Wednesday night) during the summer that the AC is off and there 
is no active mechanism to remove humidity from the church.

I think they are more common in other areas of the country, but I had one 
church that had one of those "swamp coolers" AC - I don't really know much 
about them, except that not only do the cool the air, but they also raise 
the humidity to horribly high levels. I tuned a piano in such a church and 
then two weeks later they moved the piano to the new church with a "normal" 
AC unit. They called me a couple days later saying that my tuning was bad. 
The piano dropped 75 cents flat in the new drier church. A was amazed. At 
first I looked all over the piano checking for a broken plate or some other 
major structural failure - then I learned about the swamp cooler in the old 
church.

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message ----- 
> Terry: I agree with what you say. But do you find rusty string in these 
> homes or is it in churches where the air is turned off during the week and 
> turned back on on Sunday morning causing the drastic climate conditions 
> that you described.
> Gerald