fire in the piano?? different tone?

[tomer6382]

 I saw the technician uses the fire into the mechanism for to adjust something
 For what is it? it can not burn the tree?

 I think that D and E they have different tone. please listen to the recording.
could be that the hammer does not adjust exactly and this is the reason to the different tone? how to fix?

moonlight sonata:
https://stage.co.il/media/tomerflysher415585.mp3

can you feel:
https://stage.co.il/media/tomerflysher415165.mp3

[alice oliver]

probably what you saw was the tech using a cigarette lighter to heat the hammer shanks so he could adjust the position of the hammers in relationship to each other.  this is a common way to fit hammers to hit the strings evenly, and so that the hammers are all lined up evenly.

some techs use a heat gun instead.  the flame is used just long enough to warm the wood so it will bend.  not long enough to burn the wood.

[Ed Thomas]

Alice, if the tech was using the lighter at the hammer shank, it was probably to heat the glue.  I don't know if they still use horse-hide glue or not, but it was common fairly recently.  Wood doesn't get more flexible with heat alone; it takes humidity to do that.  So maybe the tech was heating the glue to loosen the shank so he could rotate it to a better position.  But I bet you are right about what he was trying to fix.  I sure wouldn't want a tech in my piano with a lighter, though!

[alice oliver]

hi, ed.  lots of good techs use this method, and it is to straighten the hammer shank, not to heat glue.  the moisture inside the wood provides the humidity.

[Ed Thomas]

Alice:  I'll be danged.  I was surprised enough that I emailed my cousin (tuner for 30 years) and he said he always keeps a cigarette lighter in his tool kit for just the reason you said.  He pointed out that it is almost always to twist the shank, not often to bend it.  Sometimes it relaxes back to the original position, but often keeps the new position just fine.  He also remarked that he tries to do this while customers are out of the room as singed felt stinks.   

So thank you for the wonderfully tactful correction.

And if my tuner uses a lighter in my piano, I hope I'm out of the room.  (Actually, he took the whole action with him the most recent time he did work... so maybe he torched it all and I'm none the wiser!     )

[zemos]

Hey, can I ask a Question?
How do you all people record yourselves?

[chickering9]

Hey, can I ask a Question?
How do you all people record yourselves?

That's a good question but would probably be better asked as the start of a new topic post.  Behind this "fire in the piano??" title, you are not likely to get as many answers as you would with a clearly labelled new topic post.  I'll save my answer for there.

[zemos]

(: