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THE MUSIC TRADE
APRIL 1, 1922
REVIEW
11
OurTECHNICAL DEPARIMENT
CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM BRAID WHITE
THE CARE OF THE PIANO
Or "A Little Knowledge Is a Dangerous Thing,"
Being the Plain Relation of a Simply Terrible
Crime, for the Detection of Which We Are
Indebted to Brother Donelson
No more introduction is needed to the tale of
woe which follows than is given already in the
heading to these columns. Let Brother Donel-
son (you all know him, Donelson, of Flint, Mich.)
tell his tale in his own words. Says he:
"Dear Brother White: I am enclosing for the
consideration of The Review's valuable Tech-
nical Department an article on the subject, 'The
Care of Your Piano.' This article was called to
my attention by a client at whose house I hap-
pened to be working. You will notice, no doubt,
that it was taken from a recent number of a
well-known magazine which is read quite exten-
sively by the ladies. It is evidently written by
someone whose use of words far exceeds his
knowledge of facts. Were it not for the fact
that such as this is read by the layman and taken
for fact the affair would be quite laughable.
But it seems to me that as this article is full
of erroneous ideas and false teachings the mat-
ter assumes a serious aspect and should not lie
suffered to get by unnoticed. There are enough
false and frivolous notions concerning pianos
and their maintenance without having the list
added to or emphasized through popular maga-
zines.
"Is oak, mahogany or ebony veneer one-half
an inch thick? Does the wood expanding and
contracting with sudden changes of temperature
(as if the case were metal) cause the varnish to
check? Are these checks in the veneer? What
good would a glass partly filled with water be?
A huge humidifier, I would say. If I told my
clients to keep their upright pianos against the
inside wall in the Winter I would feel very guilty
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indeed. And then to keep them at an even tem-
perature (long-continued dryness) which may
be 75 per cent or 80 per cent, well, you know
what the result would be. Carrying out the direc-
tions given will certainly keep the ladies busy,
but what will they do when they cannot find the
'pedal step'? Then the havoc which might fol-
low in the trail of the 'stiff brush,' broken cedar
shanks, brass plates, etc., to say nothing of the
tabooed oil can with which the pedal joint needs
attention 'at least every two weeks.' And how
are the hammers of a grand to be got at and
brushed 'with little effort'?
"But I have gone far enough. I sincerely
hope that nothing will prevent your giving this
article sufficient critical attention. At best we
cannot undo the harm that has been done. With
best regards to yourself and the Technical De-
partment, and hoping for its long continuance,
I am, sincerely yours, F. L. Donelson, Flint,
Mich."
Chapter and Verse
In order that the reader may have the whole
matter clear before him I have gone over the
article to which Mr. Donelson refers and have
picked out its salient features, quoting them in
full. The article was published in the Delineator,
a well-known woman's paper, in the issue of
March, 1922. After two introductory and quite
admirable paragraphs the author, Horace John-
son, goes on to say:
"In every piano, whatever its price and maker,
the mahogany, oak or ebony veneer is only half
an inch thick and is laid upon the hardwood of
the case. In sudden changes of temperature this
basic wood expands or contracts according as
it is affected by heat and cold, causing little lines
to appear on the surface of the case. This is
called 'checking.' These lines are the result of
cracks in the veneer, which is glued to the
hardwood. No amount of polishing will remove
them once they have appeared. They should be
prevented by keeping your instrument in a room
where there are no sudden changes of tempera-
ture and by never placing it near windows that
are frequently opened or near a radiator. A
glass partially filled with water should stand on
the radiator, for heat, by removing the moisture
from the air, causes the sounding board of the
piano to shrink. If your piano is an upright it
is better not to place it against an outside wall
of the house. Such a wall is quickly affected by
the weather and a piano will suffer by this posi-
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tion almost as much as if the windows of the
room were left open all the time."
These statements are, of course, only partially
inaccurate. The veneer is usually less than one-
eighth of an inch thick and it is laid upon a soft-
wood core. It is not the basic wood (meaning,
I suppose, the core) which expands and contracts,
but rather the veneer itself, as well as the sheet
of varnish. The cause of checking lies in the
different index of flexibility in the two substances.
One can shrink or swell more than the other and
it is because the varnish does not have the capac-
ity for shrinking and swelling freely that it
checks when the surface below it" shrinks or
swells. The checking of varnish can probably,
things being what they are, not be wholly avoided.
On the other hand, of course, it's absurd to talk
about keeping a piano always against an inner
wall. That does not make a particle of difference.
The average room is usually too dry in Winter
and too wet in Summer and the precise position
of the piano, so long as it is neither exposed to
the weather nor to the heat of a radiator, matters
very little.
Our author goes on to talk about the sound-
board of the piano, which he declares is "very
sensitive and cracks easily, whereupon the piano
is valueless." A vast amount of inaccurate infor-
mation is contained in this one sentence. The
soundboard of a piano may be lined with cracks
without perceptibly losing its tonal value or abil-
ity to stand in tune. The soundboard is, indeed,
sensitive, but it cannot be said to crack easily.
On the contrary, nothing short of brutal abuse,
like keeping the piano over a radiator all Win-
ter, will produce serious cracks. Surface flaws
very often open out in Winter and close again in
Summer, all without hurting the piano in any
way.
The author goes on to talk about tuners and
tuning. His remarks are in general just. But,
unfortunately, he goes too far. In the next para-
graph, after his observations on the importance
of a good tuner, he goes on to say:
"Though you may not be able to save money
by tuning your piano yourself, by vigilance and a
few minutes' time each day it is possible to
(Continued on page 12)
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