[pianotech] Subject: Brands prone to breaking plates

Chuck Behm behmpiano at gmail.com
Thu Apr 16 11:49:59 PDT 2009


Ryan - This is a good idea. If you could keep a running list, it would be of
benefit to know which brands have problems with breakage. This could also be
of help in a legal case, such as Kerry is referring to. "Here, your honor,
is a list of pianos which frequent problems with plate breakage, as compiled
by piano technicians wholly unconnected with this case." It couldn't hurt,
anyway.

So, to start off, the plate that broke while I was tuning the piano (notice
I did not say "I broke" - an important distinction) was a Kimball console.

Also, a customer with an Everett piano suffered a unexplained plate breakage
in the middle of the night months after a tuning. It woke the family up -
the noise, which they thought was a rifle shot, went unexplained until the
next evening when the daughter sat down to practice her lessons.

Finally, I tune a Schomacker grand that has a cracked strut (not all the way
through, however). I always hold my breath when I tune it - been tuning it
every year for 25 years. It was up to pitch when I first tuned it, the strut
had been cracked as long as the owner could remember, and the piano sounds
fine - at least, for a Schomacker grand. I've always wondered if I'm taking
my life in my hands doing this piano, but it seems perfectly normal in every
other way. Should I quit working on it?

Anyway, those are the brands I've seen problems with. Chuck
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