Cracked or not cracked - the plate or me?

[Gregory Torres]

Bill,

It is possible that lowering the tension was enough of a stress release to allow
it to stabilize and close the crack where it would not be visible. I tuned a
square grand a few months ago which had a major crack in the bass from the tuning
pins to the edge of the plate. As a result the edge of the plate was pushing on
the edge of the soundboard which caused the center of the board to buckle upwards
giving a great amount of crown causing the bridge to split in the middle (around
C5-F5) where it curves toward the extreme treble. I lowered the pitch to about
-250 cents and it has stabilized.

If the Lester has indeed stabilized I would leave it at that...

Good Luck.

Regards,
Greg Torres

Maxpiano@aol.com wrote:

> List -
>
> I have tuned a Lester studio (1950's vintage) at several-year intervals,
> starting in 1983.  The first visit, I raised the treble from 1/4 to 1/2 tone;
> on the next three visits I found the treble had gone back down considerably.
>
> My notes for the 1992 visit are that I found a crack in the plate and lowered
> the rest of the piano 1/4 tone to match, hoping to save the instrument from
> destruction.  In my experience Lesters are more prone than most to broken
> plates.  The subsequent two tunings, however, I found the piano had stabilized
> and was holding reasonably well.
>
> Two days ago I was back and this time had to remove the action to replace some
> plastic damper flanges.  Search as I would, I could not find any crack in the
> plate.  There was an area of the strut between tenor and treble (where I
> vaguely remember seeing a crack) that had paint peeling off, but no crack I
> could find.  I am looking for some explanation.
>
> My suggestions are
> 1.  Shining the flashlight down from the top, perhaps the chipped paint area
> looked like a crack;  but why would lowering the pitch stabilize the piano?
> 2.  Perhaps the pin block is pulling away from the back posts (hidden by the
> decorative strip on top)
> 3.  The technician is cracked.
>
> Some 20 odd years ago, I tuned a Baldwin "console" (big spinet - drop action)
> for a teacher and had to raise it a half tone.  For several years it held well
> between yearly tunings, and then it began to go out drastically in the treble.
> There was a well-defined crack perpendicular to the strut.  Another technician
> bought it, pulled the plate, had it welded and anchored the loose nose bolt
> behind the strut, and has used the piano for several years as a rental
> instrument.
>
> Bill Maxim, RPT