[pianotech] Lyre Damage

[Lou Novak]

Will-

You wrote;
    I tuned it often, and cared for its needs for regulation and voicing.  As such I had a pretty good
idea of the levelness of the keybed before the move, and afterwards.  Where
the bed had been flat and the frame bedded before the move, it was not flat
and the frame floating at the ends afterwards.

Wondering, did you find the condition corrected itself or did you re-bed the key frame?

-Lou 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: William Truitt<mailto:surfdog at metrocast.net> 
  To: pianotech at ptg.org<mailto:pianotech at ptg.org> 
  Sent: Thursday, November 26, 2009 9:01 AM
  Subject: Re: [pianotech] Lyre Damage


  Hi Ron:

  I think it would be fair to say, that unless you see the perps committing
  the atrocities to the keybed, the evidence is going to be indirect and
  anecdotal.  That said, I do remember one German Steinway C that was housed
  in a large facility and concertized on regularly.  I tuned it often, and
  cared for its needs for regulation and voicing.  As such I had a pretty good
  idea of the levelness of the keybed before the move, and afterwards.  Where
  the bed had been flat and the frame bedded before the move, it was not flat
  and the frame floating at the ends afterwards.  I did not see the move, but
  did know that the movers had set the piano on the lyre as part of the move
  (I asked them later).  My guess is that they had set it down roughly, and
  that had caused the distortion.  If you take the lyre out the equation as
  part of your teardown process, it is not possible to set it down roughly and
  damage the keybed.  

  My mover, who does about 1,000 to 1,500 pianos a year, often does the
  following:  He removes the lyre, and sits in a chair in front of the keybed
  as close as possible to the bass end.  His helper lifts the bass end and
  sets it down on the chaired movers knees after he has slid them under the
  keybed.  His knees are open 6 to 12 inches during this process.  The piano
  is then sitting high enough that the helper can with some leisure remove the
  bass leg, after which point they position they skid board underneath to then
  lower the piano onto it from there.  Set up reverses this process.  I have
  seen him do this with concert grands too.  These are full time professional
  movers who work very quickly and safely, and I have learned a lot from
  peeking over their shoulder.  They work smart, not hard.  You could say
  there are old piano movers and there are dumb piano movers, but that there
  are no old, dumb piano movers.

  To what other possible causal agents would you possibly attribute the upward
  distortion of the keybed that we so often see?  I am sure there must be
  others, but I remain of the belief that setting the piano on the lyre can be
  one of them.  

  Will









  -----Original Message-----
  From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org<mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org> [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
  Of Ron Nossaman
  Sent: Thursday, November 26, 2009 11:08 AM
  To: pianotech at ptg.org<mailto:pianotech at ptg.org>
  Subject: Re: [pianotech] Lyre Damage

  Porritt, David wrote:
  >> I've said many times that the 
  >> lyre is meant for hanging and the keybed cannot or should not take the 
  >> weight of supporting the piano even temporarily
  > 
  > You mean, like sitting on the piano horse - on the key bed?
  > Ron N
  > 
  > But the piano horse distributes that same weight across the whole key bed
  rather than a few square inches above the lyre.

  Quite so. I'm curious though. Have any of you found action 
  problems you could attribute directly to setting a piano up on 
  the lyre? Any actual evidence of key bed damage from this? I 
  never have, but there are still an infinity of places I 
  haven't been. So I was wondering if this is real, or yet 
  another of those "intuitive" things. I know broken lyres and 
  crushed corners on bottom plates are real, I'm just wondering 
  where all this concern for the key bed comes from.
  Ron N


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