•Hi All, Richard Vance's posting is indeed enlightening, and I truly thank him for backing up his statements with measurable facts. However, I did state that the piano is in a "shore house". To those of us who live here, that means the house is less than two blocks from the Atlantic Ocean. On top of...

•Hi All, At the outset, let me state that this posting is not about how to convince a customer to change their ways. It's about how to deal with a bad situation. It's fairly well accepted that extreme environmental conditions are not good for player pianos (or pianos), but yesterday the question was...

•Interesting. If they are willing to spend the $$ to keep the temperature at 80 degrees, then they should also be willing to humidify and de-humidify the rooms too, as the humidity changes are also bad for the human occupant. Such a solution is not inexpensive, but it will extend the life of the hum...

•What would I do? Faced with the same problems in my own home, I do not encourage using electrical piano "toasting" or "steaming" devices to add or subtract moisture on the interior of a piano and not on the exterior of the piano. The reason: if you add moisture to one side of a piece of wood and no...

•Hi, John Tuttle asked about protecting a piano from extremes of humidity and mentions that the high temperature (80 degrees) is needed for an elderly person living in the home. Okay, I'll buy the high temperature, but I certainly cannot buy the wide fluctuation of humidity. While a sealant will slo...

•Noting the posts about humidity and temperature and their effects on instruments, our church's 30-something-rank pipe organ is completely under expression, so we have the volume shutters set to close on shut-down in the winter, and to open on shut down the rest of the time. This way, when it is col...

•Cheap hygrometers are notoriously inaccurate, especially those from [retail stores dealing in 'hobby grade' instruments']. They might be okay for watching relative changes but these things never seem to be calibrated at all. Buy two, put them side by side and you may be shocked. Accurate measuremen...

•Hello all from the frozen northern Midwest! Does anyone have a tested solution to vacuum loss due to wood shrinkage other than humidity control? I have been plagued with this problem on my Western Electric Mascot coin piano for the last 45 years. Our house is old, and despite improvements such as d...

•Regarding the posting about low humidity, it was two years after moving to the desert before the upright Ampico showed signs of wood shrinkage. The two large bolts at either end of the stack were loose by more than a half-turn. You could hear the rush of air entering the stack. Tightening the bolts...

•I, too, live in an old house and have had problems with humidity for many years. Too much humidity in summer, too little in winter. While I do not have problems with shrinkage, or leakage in my pianos, I have problems with tuning stability during extremely cold weather, and increased indoor heat at...

•If the stack in David Schroeder's Western Electric nickelodeon is anything like the ones found in most Seeburgs, here's what's happening. The medium/hard poplar wood so widely used in the pneumatic action industry responds, like wood in general, to humidity changes principally in two dimensions (ac...

•If your Ampico is refusing to rewind, it sounds like there is a leak in the repeat system causing the rewind and repeat to be on at the same time and oppose each other. To test this theory, locate the hose to the repeat valve on the side of the rewind-repeat pneumatics, and pinch it tightly closed ...

•Hi everyone, I'm just writing to thank everyone for their advice and assistance with the problem I had with my Wurlitzer 125 Band Organ [131213 MMDigest]. Many of you suggested its sudden lack of playing was related to a lack of moisture shrinking the wood and causing vacuum leaks. You were right! ...

•Per Kevin Mayes comments in 140130 Digest: Yes, Kevin, the best sounds that my original Wurlitzer organ ever made (and the best it ever played) was on summer nights, after dark, in the country. Humidity is a major factor, on older organs especially, and is most noticeable when playing out of doors ...

•If the humidity is adequate, and means to this end should be made, temperature has not a greater influence than humidity for your piano. Another addition to try also, is a very small fan at slowest speed be directed just above the floor level and include a carpet there, but try the above first. Ste...

•If your average relative humidity was over about 25% in your previous location, the piano will dry out if moved to most locations in Colorado. I suggest you get a good humidity gauge and hang it near the piano, before and after you move. If it's significantly drier here than your California locatio...

•"If your average relative humidity was over about 25% ..." That's excellent advice from Art Reblitz about the humidity change in Colorado. I suggest you purchase a high quality absolute humidity gauge or use a sling psychrometer for measurements. The hardware store varieties leave much to be desire...

•We've seen numerous comments regarding low humidity relating to this subject. Some of them suggest steps to control the humidity in the house. I would like to point out that there are devices which mount up inside a piano to control humidity very locally. The one I have is called a Dampp Chaser, si...

•What is the best temperature and humidity for piano roll storage? It occurred to me that I have extra space in my wine cellar and could use more space for roll storage. The temperature in the wine cellar is controlled at 55 degrees F., the humidity is about 70 percent. Craig Sander

•Following extreme low and high humidity events, three different electric vacuum pumps began to leak. The cork gaskets which were twenty years old seem to be the main cause. An older supply, MSC Industrial Supply Co., now sells only in large quantities. Is anyone selling gasket material 1" x 1/8" in...