[pianotech] Dehumidifier rods

Delwin D Fandrich del at fandrichpiano.com
Tue Nov 23 23:06:20 MST 2010


This depends, I think, on the construction of the pinblock. 

 

Some years back, in another time and place, I inherited a number of clients
from a tuner who had recently died. It had been his practice to install
heating rods in the action cavities of as many pianos as possible. These
were always mounted on special posts that were installed into the center
rail of the keyframe. The rods were located about 20 to 25 mm above the
keys. As this was in the days before the humidity sensor controls were
available the things were running constantly. The pinblocks that were
damaged-i.e., delaminating-were generally those with thicker sections of
wood such as the three-ply and five-ply Steinway blocks and the older
pinblocks that were put together with animal hide glue. More recently built
pianos using multi-ply (i.e., thin plies) pinblocks assembled with
(probably) phenol-formaldehyde adhesives seemed to have no problem.

 

Of course, I saw these pianos some 30 years ago. I took them out of the
pianos that were having problems-generally when I replaced the pinblocks-and
I don't know how the rest are holding up holding up today. 

 

ddf

 

Delwin D Fandrich

Piano Design & Fabrication

620 South Tower Avenue

Centralia, Washington 98531 USA

del at fandrichpiano.com

ddfandrich at gmail.com
Phone  360.736.7563

 

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Tony Caught
Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2010 3:16 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Dehumidifier rods

 

Actually what I am saying WRONG to is the placement of the heating rods. If
you put a heat source in an enclosed area like in the action cavity then you
are drying out not only the action but also the tuning plank.

In my opinion this is detrimental to any piano.

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