As announced in my email dated Feb. 4 2014 we are having a visit of our Regional Vice President Wesley Hardman on March 13th. He will be discussing restoring a tornado damaged piano and making full use of our PTG internet resources.
Our meeting schedule will be posted in the newsletter "Piano Piano" in the right column and the link to the newsletter will be in the top horizontal menu of the ptgcentralflorida.org web site. The archives link will give you access to past newsletters with some interesting and helpful information. At this point we have decided to have 3 or 4 meetings a year. We will nominate officers at the March meeting and vote at the April meeting.
Please send any suggestions for content of meeting technical presentations or business subjects to cover.
Contribute to our newsletter. Link above.
It seems the economy is headed in a different but apparently positive direction and the piano business is having a modest come back from the last few years. I hope things are picking up for your endeavors in this unique occupation and hopefully we can address ways to improve our cost to profit ratios in the future.
Dan
Photography
Piano Pinblock Fit (interesting!!)
WWTT
The above photos could be in the WWTT category in my opinion. However in some camps a tight flange to pin block fit is not important. I must disagree. Thirty tons of tension must require some stability beyond a couple dozen or so screws should it not?
Here is a hitch pin situation that I encountered recently. This is a new piano. The repair to plate damage was apparently done at the factory. This repair must have been done before stringing. In any case there was either no communication between the two parties or someone thought the repair material could hold up to the stress of the forward movement of the hitch pin. I filled the hole and touched up the repair with an airbrush. I then drilled a hole for a new hitch pin well behind the repair and installed it. The customer could not tell which pin had been replaced. Another person would have noticed the out of place pin location.
What Were They Thinking....and a new piano at that!!.
Q Does a piano soundboard really need to have crown?
A.1 Yes, when it is constructed and before it is strung to pitch.
After that mother nature takes over and the ball is in her court. I have played pianos old and new, with and without crown (I measure crown all the time.) Usually they measure no more than a 1/16 to 1/8 inch at most. Some of the best sounding pianos I have played had no visible crown. That being said, crown and bearing are quite critical when re stringing. Sometimes the best solution is to recap the bridge and set the bearing according to the crown left in the board if keeping the old board. db
A.2 Several of my customers have piano's with flat soundboard's. So, I guess crown isn't needed to use a piano.
A.3 I restored a old upright awhile ago that had a soundboard with negative crown. The customer had a budget so they elected to leave the board as is with some crack repair even though I recommeded not doing any major work to the piano at all (family piano). I set out on the adventure leaving the negative crown and setting bearing conservatively. It had a pleasant mellow sound with the extreme high treble lacking sustain although that could be a result of other issues. Overall it was a nice piano with a big bass sound and good tenor and lower treble. I would say yes, crown is a very important consideration but other things must be taken into account as well, such as the needs of the owner. After all it is just a musical instrument (a thing) and the owner has the final say. Hopefully the board will hold up even though it is sunken. It was like that for years anyway I'm sure.
Visit our chapter website (link above) and look it over
Check your links, info and service areas. Let us know if you travel outside of your service area.
Meeting Schedule
March 13, 2014 - 3 pm
D. C. Moore & Sons (Bergs Shop)
1201 Upsala Rd Sanford, FL 32771
Discuss:
Meeting locations
Officer nominations
Special program: Our Regional Vice President Wesley Hardman will give a presentation of nursing a tornado damaged piano and help us with the online benefits of our national website.
April 30 , 2014 - 10 am
Location to be decided
Discuss:
Officer elections
More to come
Technical: to be decided
Music Trivia
Why couldn't Beethoven find his piano teacher ?
Answer hint: Father of the symphony and string quartet
Disclaimer
"All expressions of opinion and all statements of supposed fact are
published on the authority of the author as listed, and are not to be
regarded as expressing the view of this chapter or the Piano Technicians
Guild Inc. unless such statements or opinions have been adopted by the
chapter or the Piano Technicians Guild Inc."
