Loose Plate bolts = ?

[Ron Nossaman]

>Hi Ron,
>
>You are missing the forest for the trees. What causes the plate to become
>loose is seasonal swings in humidity. Control humidity and tighten the
>plate bolts. If humidity control is in place end of story.
>


No, you are supplying answers to questions I haven't asked so, if anything,
you are hallucinating a forest that isn't there. I know exactly what causes
the plate to become loose. It has been explained on this list many times,
and that's why I explained it again a couple of times in very recent posts.
I know quite well what a Dampp-Chaser system will do for tuning stability. I
also know what it won't do for tuning stability when no one will adequately
maintain it, so installed humidity control systems are not the final answer
to all questions concerning the effects of humidity shifts on pianos. None
of that has anything to do with what I'm after here. What I don't understand
is the widespread fetish of tightening plate bolts in the belief that it
will improve tuning stability when no one seems to have any reasonable proof
that it actually will do so. We know that it is detrimental to the
instrument to continually tighten plate lags (this has also been explained
adequately on this list more than once), so why do it in the name of
improving tuning stability when it doesn't? If people feel an overpowering
need to tighten plate bolts because they need to justify having carried that
Crescent wrench around all those years, that's one thing. If they are doing
it for an expressed cause and effect purpose, shouldn't they be able to
witness a definite long term effect from the procedure? The only people who
can habitually go through the motions and get paid without having to
demonstrate positive results are doctors, lawyers, and politicians.  

 Ron