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<font face="Arial">Indeed Terry, I suggested that we leave the
cracks as they are for now, and see whether anything happens. I
was just thinking ahead</font>, <font face="Arial">lest they
prove to be progressive, as the client did seem to want to do
something about them.</font> <br>
<br>
Why didn't I bring it up to pitch? Well, for a number of reasons.
Firstly, the whole venture with this piano was somewhat exploratory.
It had sat for some forty years without tuning, in a damp dank house
unoccupied for a chunk of that time. It had been decanted into
storage, then brought back into a house newly restored, warm and
dry, wtih underfloor heating. <br>
<br>
The action centres were very sluggish with many in the treble not
working at all. Normally I would advise abandoning such an old
piano and getting a new one, but the owner had a real attachment to
it as part of a house he spent his summers in as a child, and he
wanted the piano to be part of the renovation of the house. Plus he
sent me pics in advance and I was rather taken with the decent
condition of the case, complete with candle sconces (usually long
gone). Plus the piano is overstrung and with some signs of quality.
Plus the owner had read all the strictures on my website about
birdcage pianos! <br>
<br>
The location is two hours away from me, and I spent quite a while
getting the action working, applying Protek CLP to every action
centre. It's a tape check action, but with unusual jacks which have
no heels, and are pushed into the hammer butt notch not by a coil
jack springs but by springs like hammer butt return springs, with
tails fixed into the jack flanges. Happily, only one was broken.
Naturally the tail was rusted solid in the flange so I had to drill
a new hole in the flange, and fit an adapted hammer return spring.
<br>
<br>
Work on the action took a while, and when I began to tune, I had
little idea of how the pinblock would be, overall. The client at
this stage was keen just to have the piano working in some fashion
if possible. I deemed it best just to go for an average of where
the piano was at, partly to assess the feel of the pinblock, and
partly due to time availability. I did not want to drive over unlit
single-track country roads in the dead of night and risk missing the
last ferry, now on winter timetable. Another factor affecting
length of tuning time was the oblong tuning pins, and the frequently
encountered dreadful design where the overdamper rail partly
obscures quite a few of the bottom row of tuning pins (with bruising
on the wood where tuners of yesteryear had fought to seat the tuning
lever on the pins).<br>
<br>
Having now gotten the action working, and established that the piano
is tunable (to the client's delight), I would be happy now to
consider a future pitch raise, especially once we see how the piano
settles in its now-dry home. I was pleased with the lack of rust on
the strings and they way they rendered over bearing points.<br>
<br>
Best regards,<br>
<br>
David.<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 05/11/2012 16:32,
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:pianotech-request@ptg.org">pianotech-request@ptg.org</a> wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:mailman.3755.1352133127.4133.pianotech@ptg.org"
type="cite">Are the cracks causing any problems? You mentions
tuning pin torque is okay. If not causing problems, why do
anything? It's impossible to tell for sure exactly how the cracks
may have affected the integrity of the block, so I would recommend
to pull the piano up to pitch and observe it over time. It's
probably just fine. I'd question how well epoxy will even work as
you have no idea how clean the edges of the cracks are. If it is a
hide glue joint coming apart - how well does 140 year old hide
glue adhere to epoxy?
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Just curious - why did you tune it 300 cents flat? Why not
bring it up?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Terry Farrell</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
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