curved church floors

[Farrell]

I think Sid's got a good handle on things here. An uneven floor can indeed 
adversely affect the tuning on an upright - but not on a grand - I mean 
assuming its not listing at 35 degrees or so.

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sid Blum" <piano at sover.net>
To: <ebonyandivory at on.aibn.com>; "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2007 7:10 PM
Subject: Re: curved church floors


> Seems to me if the grand is sitting on three legs the angle of the floor 
> should not make a difference,
>
> Unless it is quite extreme and the heavy bass falls out of the piano...
>
>
>>Hi,
>>I have this notion that regardless of the piano being a grand or upright 
>>that in these old churches with curved or bowled floors the piano is in 
>>constant flex.  In this one particular church they had a very small grand 
>>and it was impossible to tune on this floor.
>>They later purchased a 7 foot quality grand and a rolling stage was built 
>>for it.  It was a steel framed platform on hydraulic legs with locking 
>>wheels some engineering parishoners got together to build it and it 
>>worked.
>>
>>Now the new music director decides he wants the piano off the stage so 
>>there is more freedom to move it.  I guess he couldn't imagine how the key 
>>board would slope to the left and the bench may not be on the same pitch 
>>as the piano.  You feel like your on a listing ship, and The Piano 
>>Misbehaved (is now unstable) when I tuned it last.
>>
>>I had recommended that they leave things alone. I'm sure that when these 
>>churches were built that no one considered they would want to install a 
>>piano and that it might become the center of their musical devotion.
>>
>>I had recommended in the first place, with the small piano that they level 
>>the floor by building a carpeted platform to just take the curve out of 
>>the floor in the centre front of the church.   My feeling is that no piano 
>>can take this kind of twisting and flexing and stay tuned.
>>
>>Anybody have any ideas.
>>
>>Jessica Masse
>>
>>
>>Attachment converted: Macintosh HD:Curved Church floor.jpg (JPEG/«IC») 
>>(006219B8)
>
>
> -- 
> Sid Blum
> sid at sover.net
>