List, The band and choir rooms here at UM have extremely low humidity - 15-16% RH - lower than the rest of the building. I always knew tuning stability was a problem but now that I am writing down temp and RH every time I tune, I've realized it's not just all those bodies coming and going in a day. Last fall we moved an older Baldwin F into the choir room on which I had installed new hammer, shanks and flanges. When I tuned it in January the regulation - especially hammer alignment and spacing - was all over the place, loose screws everywhere, etc. The piano had also developed more false beats and seemed generally harder to tune (I mean it's already a Baldwin - give me a break). The Kawai it replaced was also notoriously hard to tune, full of false beats and unstable. My questions are: 1) Benefit everyone in these rooms and install 1-2 room humidifiers - or just try to help the pianos with Dampp-Chasers? 2) The piano in the band room is a Yamaha P22. It gets moved around by anyone and everyone regularly - the case shows it unfortunately. Is there a potential problem with water sloshing out of the dehumidifier bucket when it is moved? (I think the bucket would hang in this piano?) 3) Are the false beats a result of the bridges drying out and the pins getting loose? I tried tapping the bridge pins with a set and seating strings - it seemed to help some. Will the get better if the humidity level is brought up? Thanks for you help. Jeff Stickney, RPT University of Montana jpage@selway.umt.edu
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