Thanks- Ill see this gets forwarded to the owner. I told her before touching it if one bass string broke, I would stop and do no more, as they were all on the verge of going. But Its now been a couple years and nothing has gone boom. It baffled me, though I am very aware she is on borrowed time with it. les _____ From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Robin Stevens Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2010 5:57 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: [pianotech] Salt water and strings Les... In my small sea port town a major tide and big winds in 1934 put a foot of sea water through a ¼ of the town. When I shifted to this town in 1975 all of the flooded pianos had strings that had just snapped due to the ongoing corrosion of the salt water. They all snapped at the point where the string passed over the felt strip on the frame. Whether that happens in one year or fifty years they will eventually break. As well as the strings breaking a lot of the veneering subjected to salt water started to peel off. Not much hope for this piano, the main thing is to not get too involved when the strings start to go pop in the night and the customer keeps calling you back ;-( Best of luck Robin Stevens ARPT From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Leslie Bartlett Sent: Thursday, 17 June 2010 8:19 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: [pianotech] humidity Thanks for responses about humidity, specifically regarding issues with the Baldwin I mentioned. Now Ive another question for which Id appreciate help. The same church has a Shigeru Kawai, and two Estonia grands. There was a major issue with tuning pin torque on one Estonia, which has been resolved, but Mr. Josh Foust raised another issue. He was fairly strong in his assertion that humidity be kept between 50-57% for the Estonias. This can only be managed with DC units, as they have AC running in the major music centers of the church at all times and it is running in low-to-mid 60%. My question(s) regard humidity in general. If humidity levels are maintained at a consistent level x, how crucial that they be kept at a particular x? How does that significantly affect things like integrity of pinblock and bridge pin holes being damaged by expanding/contracting of metal against wood? Is there any general consensus about how much the pianos life will be shortened because of humidity caused wood deterioration either by crushing fibers, leaving looser tuning pins, and/or cracks in bridges? On a distantly related matter, I tuned, yesterday, a Wurlitzer spinet which went through hurricane Ike. The piano is about half a mile from the Gulf of Mexico, and had water (Gulf water being salt water) sitting in it for weeks. This was the first tuning since the hurricane. I opened up the bottom and told the owner that I was afraid everything inside was going to break. The water line was immediately obvious, as rust was the order of the day everywhere in the bottom of the piano. The bridge apron had one crack in it, and there were some small cracks in the treble bridge (not the bass one). The bass strings had changed timbre, but with one exception were not dead, and I braved pulling it up within 10 cents of pitch and the whole thing held with some stability. At the beginning of the tuning A4 was 25 cents low. These people couldnt afford a new piano, so it was a very pleasant experience to have strings hold. They had an old DC unit in it without the box. Thankfully, I think, it wasnt working, and would have been grounded out during the most needed drying time .. Thanks for input Les Bartlett Piano Service -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100618/19314965/attachment.htm>
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