Kawai piano needs orthodonture

[Greg Newell]

Tom,
    First, the fireplace is a killer. Nothing will ever stay stable in the same
room as a bonfire. That being said the keys are a bit of a mystery unless , of
course, you iron the balance rail and front rail punchings prior to installation
like I do. I've never had a problem once I started doing that. Hope this helps!

Greg

Tvak@AOL.COM 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

--
Greg Newell
mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net