[pianotech] New Asian piano that will not hold a tuning

[David Trasoff]

Thank you all for your discussion. In fact, the dealer has already  
accepted responsibility to act on my recommendation that the piano is  
defective and will need to be replaced. Obviously Samick needs to get  
on board as well. What I was looking for in this post was to get a  
summary of ideas available to present to the store management and  
possibly to Samick as to areas that need to be checked for possible  
failure, regardless of whether any checking actually gets done and  
whether or not I end up being the one doing the checking.

David Trasoff

On Jun 14, 2009, at 7:26 PM, pianotech-request at ptg.org wrote:
>
>
> All of what you recommend, Larry, are very legitimate. But who's  
> going to pay to do it? The customer shouldn't have to pay for this.  
> The store should, but won't until they give the approval to do it.  
> Since David has already told the store about the problem, the ball  
> is in their court.
>
> Wim
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Larry Fisher RPT <larryf at pacifier.com>
> To: pianotech at ptg.org
> Sent: Sun, Jun 14, 2009 3:19 pm
> Subject: [pianotech] New Asian piano that will not hold a tuning
>
> A piano that keeps slipping that much over that much time has  
> something major loose somewhere.  Even a loosely strung tuning pin  
> doesn't slip that much.  Still, it's possible that the piano didn't  
> have much of a tuning history prior to it's departure from the  
> factory.  I'd check for movement  ........   the plate will lift if  
> it's not secured well so check all the perimeter bolts and make sure  
> there aren't maybe a few that are stripped out  .......   rare but  
> possible.  Look for lifting or plate distortion all the way around  
> the rim.  The nose bolts should be tight and check for a crack in  
> the plate at those points  .........  the plate failures I've seen  
> have all happened around the area where the struts meet the tuning  
> pin webbing area.
>
> Check where the pin block meets the cabinet  ........  from inside  
> the action cavity look up at the junction  .........   bass and  
> treble.  There shouldn't be a gap there.  If the plate is distorting  
> due to lack of anchoring, downbearing will be affected.  A simple  
> sewing thread stretched across the bridge, duplicating the path of  
> the string will show if you have positive or negative downbearing.
>
> Check the crown of the soundboard.  I don't expect a soundboard has  
> enough crown in it to cause a piano to drop 100 cents, especially in  
> the treble but it's easy enough to check  .............   a thread  
> once again strectched between the ribs tells all.
>
> The shim in the horn.  Make sure it's still there.  If there's a  
> adjustment bolt, make sure it's tight.
>
> Just some ideas to check that are easily enough done.
>
> Lar
>
>
>
>
>

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