[pianotech] Subject: Brands prone to breaking plates

[James Johnson]

Years ago I had a plate in a Kimball grand break.  It was during the process of removing the plate for rebuilding.  When I loosened the pin block screws, the plate cracked at the juncture of the struts and the plate, from the bottom side up.  Apparently the original factory workers didn't fit the pin block well and then just torqued the screws down tight.  Years later, when that pressure was released, bang.  The strings were already removed and I was preparing to lift the plate out of the piano. I hope I never hear that sound again.  I vowed that I would never remove the plate from another Kimball, a promise I've kept.  I've referred several to other rebuilders.

















---- Original Message ----- 
  From: Chuck Behm 
  To: pianotech at ptg.org 
  Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2009 11:49 AM
  Subject: [pianotech] Subject: Brands prone to breaking plates


  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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