Tuning a Doped Piano

[Euphonious Thumpe]

If the "dope" is CA, try bumping the pins backwards ( as in lowering the pittch ) to break the glue line on the pin metal. You'll hear a "pop", that tells you they're freed, and then can be tuned back up.

Euphonious Thumpe


--- On Tue, 9/9/08, Greg Livingston <pianotuner440 at hotmail.com> wrote:

> From: Greg Livingston <pianotuner440 at hotmail.com>
> Subject: Tuning a Doped Piano
> To: pianotech at ptg.org
> Date: Tuesday, September 9, 2008, 11:26 PM
> Today I tuned a 40's era Brown grand with heavily doped
> pins...or, I tried to.  I could hardly get the pins to move.
>  A peek under the pinblock told me most of the pins had been
> driven in so far they protruded from under the pinblock. 
> Most of the coils were flush with the plate. I had to open
> up the extension on my Hale and really put some elbow grease
> into it.
> 
> Is there a danger that I could snap a pin by doing this? 
> Have you ever had a doped piano hold the pins so tight that
> a pin broke?  Could it happen?
> 
> The sad thing is that the family (four small kids under 10,
> about to start lessons) bought the piano four years ago from
> a well-known Massachusetts piano dealer.  The piano
> hadn't been tuned at that time, and hasn't been
> tuned all these four years, yet it was very close to pitch.
> 
> _______________________________________
> Gregory P. Livingston, Piano Tuning and Service 
> 781-237-9178 Piano Technicians Guild, associate member
> (Boston chapter) 
> 
> * * * Always remember September 11, 2001
> 
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