Pianos in the Deep Freeze

Will Truitt surfdog at metrocast.net
Fri Jan 11 04:29:23 MST 2008


Thanks to Terry Farrell for his  deep concern about the plight of the this
poor New Hampshire Church and their wish to stop heating all of the Great
North Woods.

 

However, I am deeply skeptical of the expertise of some Hawaiian print shirt
Florida person whose heating experience is confined to turning the air
conditioning DOWN when he wants to be warmer; and the closest he's ever come
to frostbite is reaching deep into the back of the freezer for more Ben and
Jerry's Cherry Garcia.  

 

That being said, I approached my client about Mr. Farrell's proposal.  To my
surprise they expressed great interest.  She is a former procurement officer
in the airforce, so your bid will have to be preceded by 8,000 pages of
documentation in triplicate, a working  prototype, and 6 years of field
testing with confirmed failure rates high enough to gain the ire of a
taxpayers watchdog group,  THEN he can bill the church.  If he is lucky,
he'll get paid in 6 months to a year.  But he can double bill because the
bookkeeping  will get lost and be untraceable.  

 

She has also indicated that she wants the piano in the shape of her antique
25 foot Chris Craft with lots of mahogany trim.  Do you have any experience
working with wood, Mr. Farrell?  References, please!

 

Will Truitt

 

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Farrell
Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2008 5:30 PM
To: Pianotech List
Subject: Re: Pianos in the Deep Freeze

 

I think if you put a new piano in that churce, as others have pointed out,
it will become firewood in very short order.

 

I think you need to commission someone (me, for instance!) to build you a
custom fiberglass case piano with a carbon-fiber soundboard, etc. We can
retrofit a Kawai ABS action to it and get a set of keys made out of some
appropriate man-made material.

 

No sweat! Oh boy, I was looking for a new fun project!!!

 

What size? What color? When do we start?

 

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Will Truitt <mailto:surfdog at metrocast.net>  

To: pianotech at ptg.org 

Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 7:52 PM

Subject: Pianos in the Deep Freeze

 

I would appreciate the advice of those of you on the list pertaining to this
topic:  One of my customers is the pianist for a 200 year old congregational
church here in New Hampshire.  Because of the very high cost of heating oil
this winter, the church has decided to turn the heat off completely between
Sundays.  It's a big, airy church with no insulation in the walls and single
pane windows.  So, a day or so after services, the interior temperatures
will nearly match whatever they are outdoors.  

 

Presently, the pianist is using an old upright that has one foot in the
grave.  The church music committee has just given her $15.000 to buy a new
grand piano.  But she is concerned that the lack of heat between services in
the wintertime will damage the piano, and wonders if the new piano would be
an appropriate investment given the conditions it will be kept.  She has
asked my advice.  

 

Some background about our winter climate in New Hampshire.  Our winters can
be long and cold.  We can have protracted cold spells where the overnight
lows can be  - 10 or - 20.  Common overnight lows will be in the single
numbers and teens.

 

I have seen pianos that were stored in an unheated truck for a couple of
days brought inside to a heated space.  Within an hour or so, you will see
condensation forming on the exterior of the piano.  Because the piano is so
cold, I have seen frost form!

 

I think the issues that this piano would face are these:  The condensation
that is the byproduct of the freeze - thaw cycles will damage the finish of
the soundboard and the case, which may lead to crazing.  Sluggish and
sticking keys will be a common complaint. Strings and other steel parts will
rust because of the condensation.   Given that the temperature will jack
from very low to 60 or 65 degrees in a few hours, I would be concerned about
the soundboard cracking due to expansion caused by the rise in temperature.

 

What are your thoughts?  Thanks in advance for your offering.  

 

Will Truitt

 

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