<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; ">Hi Barbara,<DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Pretty cold in my part of the great northeast as well!</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I tune for a small country church with a 3 year old small Yamaha grand with severe winter dryness trouble as well as very high summer humidity. Didn't need a hygrometer for diagnosis of the dryness as there is a lecturn right next to the piano that is quite solid in the summer and quite see-through in the winter. After trying the first year of the new piano sans DC unit I managed to convince them that to have any hope of stability they needed the DC system with undercover and string cover.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Two years later we are tuning the piano 2X each year - just before Easter and either the beginning of Choir season or just before Christmas (depending on when the choir director thinks of it). </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I still notice that the piano is most out of tune in the first two octaves of the non-wound strings but instead of being 10-30 cents flat or sharp (depending on the season) now it's closer to 5-10 cents on the worst strings.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>In my opinion the undercover and string cover were essential in this instance and would most likely help in your situation. I would also urge consideration for a second humidifier tank for an A. It would definitely help out on the coldest (and dryest) days!</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>will</DIV><DIV>no longer completely snow bound in upstate NY</DIV><DIV><BR><DIV><DIV>On Feb 16, 2007, at 10:47 PM, Barbara Richmond wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; ">Howdy,</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"></FONT> </DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; ">Hope you're all nice and cozy, it's been dang cold here. I've got a question for you DC experts, I would have called DC themselves, but I didn't get home in time this afternoon. </SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"></FONT> </DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; ">Early this past fall I regulated a 1920s S&S A and installed a full DC system--but no undercover. The piano is kept closed and covered when not in use. The church has AC, though to me it felt humid (for some reason I didn't have my hygrometer with me). Anyway, before Christmas I tuned the piano again and it was 17 cents low. Today I tuned it again and it was 14 cents low. Yikes. The weather here lately has been extremely cold (OK, you nanooks of the north can laugh) and the church was incredibly dry--it didn't register on my not very good hygrometer. A couple weeks ago, the music director called to tell me that tuning pins were slipping like crazy on the harpsichord I worked on last December. I thought today that the tuning pins on the piano felt looser than in the past (or was it my imagination?). AND I noticed that the regulation was off, too. Geeze. Apparently the heat is always on in the church--not one of those where it gets turned off and on, and it has felt warm to me the times I've been in there.</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"></FONT> </DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; ">So...you get the picture that the place is dry. Here is the question--how good a job should the DC system be doing in these circumstances? Is anybody else experiencing this? The music director said he is filling the DC tank at least once a week. I even took a look to see if I had plugged things in the wrong place. Is there anything else I can do, besides put an undercover on? Can undercovers make a huge difference in a situation where there isn't significant air movement, etc? </SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"></FONT> </DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; ">I thought about recommending that the church look into a big April-Aire system.</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"></FONT> </DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; ">Any suggestions are welcome.</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; ">Thanks.</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; ">Barbara Richmond, RPT</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; ">near Peoria, Illinois</SPAN></FONT> </DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>