Can you stand one more Dampp-Chaser question?

I have been following the recent Dampp-Chaser discussion with interest. But it is unclear to me which of the comments refer to a grand piano and which to an upright. I have a grand piano (M&H B. I have been testing the humidity of my house over the past year and it runs from about 48% to 65%. I asked my piano tuner (who sold me the piano is also a piano technician and rebuilder) about getting a Dampp-Chaser. The M&H was an expensive purchase and I don't see another piano in my future (aside from the cost, I really like the piano and want to keep it in good shape). My tuner says that the DC won't do that much for a grand. He said the only thing to do was to regulate the overall humidity of the house. Checking with HVAC guy, he says there isn't much hope, although he did say my frugal ways of running the bare minimum heating and air conditioning were making things worse. It would be very expensive to run a dehumidifier and then I would have to keep the house closed up all the time (which I really don't want to do).

Is the range of 48-65% harmful to the piano. I read that it should be around 40% and stable. The strings do show some minor rusting. Am I panicking for nothing? Should I pursue the DC? Should I move out of the fog belt of Northern California? Meanwhile, I have turned the heat on in the house and the humidity has dropped (today it is 50%). So I am enjoying the warmth and justifying the expense by saying it is good for my piano!

What to you experts think?

Thanks

I too used to run bare minimum heating in my house in Southern California. Purchasing my M&H AA changed all that. I heat my house to keep my piano warm.

I have a DC in my BB, I love it. I do keep the BB closed most of the time, so perhaps it is more effective then. I plan to get a string cover the next time the tech comes over. Here in MN it's dry in the winter and wet in the summer, so the DC is always helping out.

Janet,

Similar to what I said in a similar thread, what will benefit your strings in protecting them against rust is a string cover. Read the other post again for details.

A Dampp-Chaser system in your humidity range will give a little extra tuning stability. Not a big deal, but if you are real sensitive to tuning, you might appreciate it. You might find the need for tunings is fewer an farther between. But I'm not talking about the half-witted installations of just a rod and no humidistat. I mean a proper installation.

It is ridiculous to say that the *only thing to do is regulate the humidity in the whole house*. It is something you *can* do that might be slightly better than a string cover plus a Dampp-Chaser system, but it's ridiculous to polarize them as though one way does everything and the other way does nothing. You are not dealing with a reasonable person there. More likely he just doesn't deal with carrying the various parts and supplies a Dampp-Chaser tech would carry, or string covers, and doesn't care to get involved.

Then again, a string cover protects the insides against layers of dust accumulation, a definite benefit that a house system doesn't have.

Regards,

Rick Clark

Thanks Rick, I do think the tuner is biased against the Dampp-Chaser but I am not sure why. I don't think he carries it or installs it. He is usually pretty reasonable on other issues so I am sure there is some history here that I don't know about.

I will look into a string cover.

I am not that sensitive to the tuning so that is not a big problem. My greatest concern is maintaining the piano. My understanding is that a very dry climate and/or large swings in humidity are mare dangerous than a consistently high humidity situation. So as long as I am not doing damage to my piano I can carry on like this.

I do like to keep the piano open and we have a lot of dust here so the string cover sounds like a good idea.

Thanks Janet

You're wise to test your indoor humidity. Buy have you been testing the humidity right next to the soundboard, either inside the cabinet, or just below it? A draft blowing against the bottom of the piano, or a nearby fireplace or other heat source, can affect the microclimate in and the piano itself. The latest Dampp-Chasers have an undercover cloth for grands to control the air surrounding the soundboard even more closely.

My real world experience with Dampp-Chasers is limited to just my two pianos, but I've had a lot of experience with guitars. After 20 years, frets are sticking out of the sides of the neck and so on (the guitar's, not mine . If it has any long term benefit, it seems to me like cheap insurance for such a great instrument as yours. The biggest hazard (it seems) is cracking the pinblock, which eventually leads to a nearly a complete rebuild.

Interesting, My guitar after a few years in the San Fernando Valley developed splits in the top and the tuning peg end of the neck split off. It was a Dreadnought. This was from lack of humidity. I lived near Westwood for awhile but never noticed anything dripping from the roof except rain. TS

hmmm ... well I guess I need to go back to testing. I was sitting the gauge on the music stand

I thought guitars were supposed to have frets sticking out the sides of the neck.

This is an acoustic classical guitar. When new, the ends of the frets were flush. Now, as you put a finger and thumb on each side of the fretboard and run up and down, you can feel the ends of the fret wires. The length of the wires has stayed constant, but the width of the neck has shrunk (as viewed from looking straight down at the top of the guitar).