harpsichord and piano forte help

[Kent Swafford]

On 9/13/01 2:07 PM, "Wimblees@AOL.COM" <Wimblees@AOL.COM> wrote:

> I know there are Internet pages for harpsichord and piano forte technicians,
> but I just need a little help from some of you who work on these things.
> 
> I have two harpsichords and one pianoforte at the university. Last week I
> tuned both harpsichords, and yesterday I tuned the pianoforte. There were two
> things I found on all three things. One was that they were anywhere from 25
> or 50 cents high. (in fact, one harpsichord was almost 3 steps high). When I
> talked to one of the professors about this he said it was the high
> temperature in the rooms that cause them to be so high. I found the
> temperature in the rooms to be at 70 degrees. The air conditioning in this
> building is pretty good. All the rooms have their own individual controls,
> and when I go there in mid August, all the room were "cool." None were "hot
> and humid" 
> 
> The other thing I noticed was that all of them had about 4 or 5 broken
> strings, mostly in the lower end. Now, I don't play the piano, much less the
> harpsichord, and I have only tuned one other pianoforte, but I can't imagine
> harpsichord or pianoforte strings breaking because of hard playing. Am I
> right or wrong on this?

Hi Wim,

Repeat after me, over and over, as a mantra:

"It's not the heat; it's the humidity."

You say one harpsichord was 3 _steps_ high. This is not an unusual amount
for a harpsichord to go sharp with the change in season from dry to wet.
While it is true that harpsichords are sensitive to temperature changes,
they can also be _wildly_ sensitive to humidity changes.

Please note that the pitch swing due to the change in humidity could be the
cause of the broken strings. It is good practice to do pitch corrections on
harpsichords at regular intervals as the seasons change regardless of
whether they are being played to avoid letting a harpsichord get as sharp as
you found. Strings will start popping at pitches that are somewhat less than
3 steps sharp.

I'll have to let someone else answer your pianoforte questions.

Kent Swafford