[pianotech] interesting situation with a tuning

[John Formsma]

Marshall,

It's possible it's your technique.

We are going through weather changes from summer to fall. It could be
related to humidity changes. You can tune a piano at 50% relative humidity.
If the relative humidity goes down to 35%, the tuning will change in a
couple of weeks. Usually the unisons will be pretty good, but everything
else is off.

I've tuned Kawai pianos with pins that felt like that. Tuning the first one
(years ago) was difficult. But with experience, you learn to adapt to just
about anything.

What I would do, and have done, for that situation, is return to check on
the tuning. If it has changed a lot, it's probably due to the humidity
changes. Like Wim said, you can be a nice guy, or a nasty one. I generally
am a nice guy for the first one, and don't charge for that situation. Do try
to explain why pianos go out of tune. Hand out brochures, Piano Life Saver
literature, etc.

-- 
John Formsma, RPT
Blue Mountain, MS


On Thu, Sep 29, 2011 at 8:38 PM, Marshall Gisondi
<pianotune05 at hotmail.com>wrote:

>  Hi Everyone,
> First thank you William for the contact info of the insurance person that
> the PTG uses.  I meant to write sooner but it's been hectic lately.
>
> Today I tuned for one of my regular customers, a church with several
> pianos.  A month ago I tuned one of the pianos in their fellowship hall, a
> Kawai 506N.  Today I'm told that it sounded funny during one of their
> Wednesday night services which was held in the fellowship hall  The piano
> was out of tune somewhat. I had to redo the temperament and some of the
> octaves.  The tuning pins had a strange feel to them, almost as if they had
> torque, but at the same time they didn't have good torque. They felt tight
> but not terribly, but moved without too much trouble.  Some flag polled
> easily if I wasn't careful. I needed a smaller tip but didn't have one. I
> have one size so far which has served me well, but once bills are caught up
> it's time to go shopping. :-)  In fact I set one pin and tested it, and it
> moved just by placing the tip on the pin.  So in setting them I had to pound
> away and make such tiny movements.  So what I'm wondering is, did the tunig
> go out because of something I did, the type of piano it is, temp/humidity
> change?  I was told the temp didn't change in this room. If the temprature
> is constant inside how much does outside tempratures/conditions affect the
> piano?  This one was a puzzler because they've been telling me that my
> tunings hold long.  In fact on a Yamaha GA1 the one Yamaha discontinued, my
> tunings are holding longer than the last person they used.  Am I losing any
> ability, or did I run into a problem piano?
>
> Is the 506N a lower end Kawai and defective like the Yamaha G1 that was
> discontinued?  Thanks everyone
> Marshall
>
>
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