This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment Last summer while touring Europe with Ryuichi Sakamoto, we used two = CF-IIIs (one a Disklavier Pro). In Italy, where we spent three weeks, = most of the concerts were out doors in a piazza or some historic castle = etc. None of these venues had a roof or even a tent top. I was forced to = build some sort of shade for the pianos every day. Cafe umbrellas worked = pretty well! Even so, the ambient temperature was always around 90F +. = Then, of course, the sun went down and the temp dropped a good fifteen = degrees or so before show time. I was constantly chasing the tuning. I = tried Dampp-Chasers but they didn't really help much with any wind = blowing at all. Anyway it wasn't so much a humidity problem (although it = was quite humid - 80% +) as the temperature change. Tuning the piano in = the morning was really just an academic excersise! Try to tune as close = to the performance as possible. I love to attend open air concerts in the summer time but it's not = really the proper environment for any musical instrument much less a = piano. I believe the artists understand this but try to convince the = promoters, stage managers, etc.. Phil Romano Myrtle Beach, SC ----- Original Message -----=20 From: Wilsons=20 To: pianotech@ptg.org=20 Sent: Monday, August 20, 2001 6:43 AM Subject: Re: Hot and Heavy [ON Topic] Every year, the WV Symphony treks up to Snowshoe for an outdoor = concert. There's a circus tent - huge - that seats about 1,000 plus the = symphony, up on a stage. The first time they took the piano, we = discovered that there are wild swings in humidity: fog rolling in at = night, even penetrating into the enclosed tent, and burning off anywhere = from 8 am to noon or so. Totally unpredictable. The first year, since = we were 5 hours from home, the grounds & stage people scrounged up an = array of lights, which we placed under the piano, which was then covered = w moving blankets which draped to the floor. In subsequent years, the = symphony has used dampp chaser dehumidifying rods which they purchased = through me. We use about 5 rods and 2 humidistats. What a difference! = Wally Wilson, RPT At 08:31 PM 8/19/01 -0500, you wrote:=20 Hi Z!, Both of our concert grands have to the floor fitted tarps, = that are heavily quilted, it helps quite a bit. But there is no real = way to over come those concerts in the park, stability type things. = Minimizing is the best you can hope for. Besides the heavy tarp, laying = two moving blankets on the strings inside the piano seems to help. But = I may be fooling myself on that one. Insulate and protect, in the best way possible. Regards Roger. At 07:07 PM 8/19/01 -0400, you wrote:=20 Hi Everyone! How hot can a piano get before you run into more serious problems = than changes in the tuning? What are some of the problems people have = observed after a piano got hot? Over the summer I tuned at a couple of festivals on what were = otherwise beautiful summer days here in Detroit but must have been = nightmares for the pianos. As usual, I was asked to tune first thing in = the morning despite the stage manager's full knowledge that the tuning = will be seriously "altered" by the time the featured artist was going to = play. Over the course of all the set changes, the pianos were often = relegated to some out-of-the-way corner of the stage where they sat out = in full sunlight, often wearing black naugahyde covers. Those pianos = were probably hot enough to roast a fat steak by the time I came back to = them to "touch them up" just before the performances. (The stage = managers have been told repeatedly not to leave the pianos out in full = sunlight for any length of time ....) Since then, those pianos have been doing one-night stands all over = metro Detroit and I haven't crossed paths with any of them yet since = their sunbathing sessions. Nor have I heard any comments from the other = technicians who have serviced them since then. Meanwhile I came to yet = another concert rental recently which had numerous loose lead weights in = the damper system, and I'm wondering if that one also got a good = "sunburn" at some point over the summer. Thanks in advance -- Z! Reinhardt RPT Ann Arbor MI diskladame@provide.net ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/68/8c/9b/ba/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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