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<BR>I know there are Internet pages for harpsichord and piano forte technicians,
<BR>but I just need a little help from some of you who work on these things.
<BR>
<BR>I have two harpsichords and one pianoforte at the university. Last week I
<BR>tuned both harpsichords, and yesterday I tuned the pianoforte. There were two
<BR>things I found on all three things. One was that they were anywhere from 25
<BR>or 50 cents high. (in fact, one harpsichord was almost 3 steps high). When I
<BR>talked to one of the professors about this he said it was the high
<BR>temperature in the rooms that cause them to be so high. I found the
<BR>temperature in the rooms to be at 70 degrees. The air conditioning in this
<BR>building is pretty good. All the rooms have their own individual controls,
<BR>and when I go there in mid August, all the room were "cool." None were "hot
<BR>and humid"
<BR>
<BR>The other thing I noticed was that all of them had about 4 or 5 broken
<BR>strings, mostly in the lower end. Now, I don't play the piano, much less the
<BR>harpsichord, and I have only tuned one other pianoforte, but I can't imagine
<BR>harpsichord or pianoforte strings breaking because of hard playing. Am I
<BR>right or wrong on this?
<BR>
<BR>I suspect that the harpsichord professor had tried to tune these things and
<BR>wound up tuning them very high. Am I right in that conclusion? Or can strings
<BR>break because of hard playing, and will the pitch go up to 50 cents high
<BR>because of an increase in temperature of perhaps 5 degrees?
<BR>
<BR>Another quick question about the pianoforte. I took the action out, because
<BR>some of the notes weren't working, and saw a small block of wood on each key,
<BR>between the balance rail and the back of the key. The top of the block of
<BR>wood was flared. I could not see what this block of wood is there for. I
<BR>looks like it should have a piece of felt on it, like the hammer rest block
<BR>on a Steinway, but there was no sign of felt anywhere. Also, the blocks of
<BR>wood didn't line up directly under the hammer shank. Any one with an idea of
<BR>what the block of wood is for?
<BR>
<BR>Wim </FONT></HTML>