Kawai piano needs orthodonture

[Don]

Hi Tom,

Fireplaces unless designed to be energy efficient draw a *lot*of air. I
suspect you need to do a full dc system install with back cover and that
they will need to keep the key cover closed.

At 05:03 PM 2/2/02 -0500, you wrote:
>Last year, I helped some good friends of mine find a piano.  After a couple 
>of months looking, I found a Kawai console which they purchased last January 
>(2001).  This piano dates back to the late 70s with one owner, a professor 
>and musician;  the instrument was in very good condition with little hammer 
>wear.
>    I tuned it for them and did a full regulation of the piano, including 
>setting key height and key dip.  Now, just 13 months later, the keys are not 
>level any longer.  And I'm not being picky here, this keyboard looks like it 
>needs orthodonture.  I would expect a leveled keyboard to last for years 
>before it needed leveling again.
>    What would cause this?  
>    I can guarantee there are no children banging on the keys, as the
parents 
>are professional musicians and I am confident that this would never take 
>place in their home.    The humidity level in their home is at 21%, which 
>seems very low to me, but then, I leveled the keys last January when the 
>humidity was probably close to the same.
>    This piano also goes out of tune amazingly fast in spite of the pins 
>being tight in the block.   I can see why it would be out of tune from my 
>last tuning in August, now that the humidity in the home is so low, but I 
>tuned it one week ago and today there were 3 or 4 unisons which had drifted 
>dramatically.  This is not a one time event, either;  I am always 
>disappointed when I visit them to find how poorly the piano has held its 
>tune.  
>    The piano itself seems fine to me.  The work I did on it is the same
work 
>I've done on other pianos.   I have mentioned to them that the low level of 
>humidity was not good for the piano and could possibly be causing these 
>problems and I got the fish-eye.  I'm afraid they think that there's either 
>something wrong with the piano, or me, and they're leaning towards me on
that 
>issue.
>        Could the low humidity be at the bottom of all of this?  The piano
is 
>NOT near a heat vent, it's even sitting on an inner wall.  There is a fire 
>place across the room about 10 feet away.   They use it frequently. 
>    What's going on here?
>
>Any thoughts are appreciated.
>
>Thanks,
>Tom Sivak
>

Regards,
Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.M.T., R.P.T.

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