[pianotech] pitch and temperature

[chip tuthill]

Same problem for me here in Colorado. No heat in the church or opera house. 
Tuning in gloves , hat and heavy jacket. Then the owner turns on the heat.  From 
15 to 70 degrees forced hot air right on the piano. Tuning goes to hell. I turn 
off the heat and leave a note for the piano player- good luck. No heat for the 
tuning. Can only guess what did happen after I leave. Concert was in two hours.

Chip



________________________________
From: Encore Pianos <encorepianos at metrocast.net>
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Sent: Mon, January 10, 2011 10:33:08 AM
Subject: Re: [pianotech] pitch and temperature

It has to be the strings.  Case in point:  I tune a small Yamaha grand for a
church house in in an old New England Congregational style church.  Built in
the early 1800's, big rattly windows, and no insulation.  They stopped
heating the church between Sunday services a couple of years ago.  When I
would come to tune the piano in January or so, they would jack the
temperature up from 10 or 20 degrees to 70 an hour or so before I would
come.  The church air is 70 when I get there, but the piano is so cold that
frost is forming on the sides from the condensation (no joke!!)  I would
spend the whole wasted two hours and 3 passes before I gave up chasing the
pitch all over the place.  As the piano strings would warm up, the pitch
would change so rapidly that by the time I got to the ends of the piano, the
middle would be out again.  The rest of the piano is a thermal mass that
takes much longer to warm up than the strings - I would have to guess many
hours to achieve equilibrium with the air temperature and that of the
strings - I certainly would give up long before that time.

Will Truitt 


      
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