<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> Julie, Recently a church called me about tuning their three pianos.  I haven't been there yet.  The chief musician said they are thinking of replacing the sanctuary piano because they have trouble keeping it in tune.  There may indeed be a structural problem, but one thing I will consider is whether it is simply the seasonal humidity fluctuations.  If that is the case, a new piano won't solve the problem. I remember having a Kawai grand once with loose tuning pins.  Since there was plenty of space between the coils and the plate, I braced up the pinblock and tapped down all the tuning pins, just enough so I could see them move.  I was delighted that, having done this, the pins tightness was great, and I avoided contaminating the pinblock with Garfield's or CA, something I like to keep for low-value pianos, or as a last resort before repalcing the pinblock. My experience is that "doping" lasts much longer than for one tuning, assuming it was effective to start with. When to repin calls for considering several factors.  Is the piano worth the expense?  Is the customer able and willing to pay?  Have less expensive alternatives been exhausted?  How loose are the tuning pins?  If they won't hold the pitch, then something should be done, but I wouldn't do anything if they hold but just have less torque than desirable. Regards, Clyde Hollinger, RPT Alpha88x@aol.com wrote: <blockquote TYPE=CITE>Greetings,             I have a lady I am going to see Monday who has a Kawaii grand that she claims will not hold a tuning. I never doped a pinblock before. If upon inspection the pins are loose, should I dope. Is this an unwise move?              I hear  that doping only lasts for one tuning and then the obvious is inevitable, which I hear is a re-pin job. How loose must pins be to sanction a re-pinning? Thanx, Julie  </blockquote> </html>