Haines Bros. sq. grand./1880 ?

[Clyde Hollinger]

Carl,

Is your reference to "wonderful instrument" tongue in cheek?  :-)  My
impression is that most techs wouldn't refer to *any* square grand as a
wonderful instrument.  They're pretty, though.

I can't make any further observations about square grands, since I never
worked on one and never intend to.  As far as the CA treatment goes, my
results with it have been so-so.  It usually seems to do some good, but not
always, and sometimes not very much.  But I might be too cautious in how
much I use, because I don't want to overdo it.  I used a whole bottle on an
old upright once, and they got way too tight.  But I talked with another guy
who used two bottles (2 oz.) on a piano before he noticed any improvement.

Did you try tapping the pins a little deeper, if there's enough room on the
pins below the coils to do that?  Be sure to brace the pinblock, of course.
I suggest that because I did that once on a 1974 Kawai grand.  I tried
tapping a few of the loose pins, just enough to see some movement downwards,
and they felt like a new piano!  So I did them all.  But your piano has a
much worse case of loose pins than this one did.

Regards,
Clyde

Carl Teplitski wrote:

> Today I went to see if I could improve this wonderful instrument.
> Customer said that the pins were OK because the piano has been
> kept up alright. This 24 year old fellow, very bright, works in the film
>
> industry locally, bought this piano for $1200.00 . Well , the pins were
> so
> loose I thought I might be able to turn with my fingers. Absolutely
> brutal
> piano. Tried to tune a little, but a little was all you could do. Spoke
> to
> an RPT friend locally, and I suggested that this might be a good
> candidate
> for a CA treatment. He thought I should stear clear of it altogether.
> Probably
> good advice. The dampers were very ineffective. Wondered if  a V type
> damper
> would work somewhat better ??  Curious as to what the list members
> think.
>
> Carl / Winnipeg
>
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