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Wood for Player Piano Action Stack
By Bill Chapman

Just a thought about the wood selected for a player action stack.
Humidity is of great concern when it comes to woods.  After moving
from stable, 55% humidity in Seattle, I found that the desert really
does a number on instruments.

The Duo-Art and the Ampico are situated in the same room, yet have
great differences in the reaction to humidity changes.  The Ampico
reacts much worse to the 12-15% humidity and actually quit playing.
The Duo-Art is not unaffected, however -- it requires frequently
tweaking of the springs on the Theme and Accompaniment.  Tuning is
also a big problem.  Whether the differences between the two pianos
is attributed to woods used or the mechanical system is hard to say.

An old ad (mid-1800s) by Broadwood made a big point of explaining
their pianos were built to remain stable in climates around the world,
from England to India.

Bill Chapman


(Message sent Tue 22 Nov 2005, 16:33:43 GMT, from time zone GMT-0800.)

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