[CAUT] Yamaha verticals

[Joseph Alkana]

I remember trying to lift out one of those nightmare combos on a T-116 right 
after I returned to work following my heart attack. I thought that the 
effort to lift it out was going to put me right back in the hospital! I 
couldn't believe how heavy the fall board/ front felt to me. Also the grip 
was hard to maintain on that slick poly as well. Maybe I should have the 
customer remove it for me...?  :-)

As for the pinblocks...I, too, have felt for a long time that all models 
made in Thomaston and those from Indonesia (?) are far removed in feel from 
the blocks onboard the Japanese models - U1, U-3, U-5. Maybe they feel like 
Steinway upright blocks. Do I dare say Baldwin blocks? Oh, well, that's 
where having my Jahn tuning lever works out very fine. No more disasters 
occurring because of a bad head to shaft breakdown. I really like the feel 
of solidarity now provided.


Joseph Alkana RPT


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ron Nossaman" <rnossaman@cox.net>
To: "Pianotech" <Pianotech@ptg.org>; <caut@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2006 8:11 AM
Subject: [CAUT] Yamaha verticals


>
> Tuning new Yamaha verticals reminds me more every year of 1098s. The low 
> counter bearing angle and very tight pins that you have to crank quite a 
> ways before the bottom moves, makes for interesting tuning. The tuning pin 
> bushings do help, as do a couple of yearly cycles through the typical 70%+ 
> to 30%- institutional humidity swings. In homes with good humidity 
> control, they'll probably be like this forever!
>
> I tuned a T116 yesterday, and I've got to ask. Why did Yamaha design 
> something with a forty pound combination front and fallboard and not give 
> us a block on the top back side of the front board to use as a secure 
> handle to lift the thing out? The P22s have the block the lock is mounted 
> in up there, and it's a perfect handle, but the T116 isn't as 
> accommodating. If you can't manage to weasel a few fingertips under the 
> name board felt in front (never mind finding the balance point), that 
> leaves the hinged fallboard strip to use as a handle (and again finding 
> the balance point). I don't like that. It's too much weight to put on 
> those hinges, and the strip doesn't come square to the fallboard. It 
> angles out some, which does little for security of grip. Folks with wet 
> sticky hands won't be overly endangered, but hands as dry as mine 
> typically are offer no traction on polished polyester surfaces, so it's 
> just a matter of time before the tuning fee goes back into a polyester 
> repair job. Maybe I'll try to find a couple of very large tree frogs I 
> could stick on and use as temporary handles.
>
> How do you dry handed 140 pounders out there get into these things without 
> generating polyester debris fields?
>
> Ron N
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