Carol Beigel
On Feb 10, 2014, at 11:43 PM, Laurel Lapin <Murlyne@...> wrote:
Hello,
My piano has been going out of tune extremely fast lately. I was told this was an uncommon but not unknown problem with Yamaha pianos. Has anyone had a similar experience, and how did you fix it?
I have a Disklavier DC1 Mk IIXG manufactured in 1996. I live in Thousand Oaks CA. It has been unusually dry this year-not only lack of rain, but unusually low humidity.On 6/21/13 I had my piano tuned by Geoff Sykes, a well respected Disklavier technician. On 8/15/13 he came back out to install some electronic parts, and he had to touch up some of the unisons on the tuning.On 12/16/13 I had my piano tuned by John Ballinger, my usual piano tuner, and the unisons started going out of tune in 4 days. I called John, and he said I might need a humidifier/de-humidifier. John got busy, and he referred me to Mike Farnell, a co-owner of Pacific Piano Supply Co.On 2/7/14, Mike came out and inspected the piano. He removed the action, and inspected where the pin-block meets the plate. He was able to slide his business card between the two from A4 to A8, and A2 down to C1. He said that the piano had this defect when manufactured, and the recent dry conditions made it worse. He said the piano won't be able to hold a tune until the space between the pin-block and the plate is filled in, because the pin-block is pivoting where it is touching, and it is not rock-solid because it is not touching everywhere because of the bad fit. His proposed solution was to have him take the piano to his shop, where he would loosen the strings and fit hard maple shims to fill the gaps. He said he had seen this in about 20 Yamaha pianos, and when he does this procedure, it fixes the tuning stability problem. He also said that Thousand Oaks should not need a humidifier (he lives in Simi Valley, just a few miles away, and he is familiar with the area).Has anyone encountered this tuning stability problem?Has anyone had any dealings with Mike Farnell, good or bad?The proposed fix would cost two thousand dollars. Can anyone recommend anything else be done while he has the piano apart?I have noticed some prominent harmonics when I play 2 notes.Sometimes there are some annoying cabinet rattles and buzzes--they come and go--in the lid and the music rack.
The piano does sound sweet when it is in tune.
Any and all suggestions appreciated.
Thanks,
Phil Mallory