[CAUT] Steinway Upright tuning

[Ted Sambell]

In 1972, the university Faculty of Music I worked for  bought a number of these, and within a few years each and every one of them had the pinblock separate in the bass. I am puzzled because nobody else seems to have had this experience, possibly because of changes to more recent models. The design deficiences were so obvious as to make one wonder what kind of tinkeres were responsible. Overall, these were truly dismal examples of the piano makers' art.

Ted Sambell
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jim Harvey 
  To: College and University Technicians 
  Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2007 2:08 PM
  Subject: Re: [CAUT] Steinway Upright tuning


  Congrats on your RPT status, Joe.

  No doubt everyone on this list has a minimum of one story about these units. I know several from various colleagues, but will only share mine at the moment.

  The late George Defebaugh once asked me about my tuning abilities; iow, whether I felt confident and comfortable with tuning. I admitted that generally, yes, I felt I had reached a certain plateau in my skills for the time I'd been in the business. I then thought for a moment, and confessed that there was one piano where I didn't like the results (tuners are often their own worst critics), and figured that since it was the last call of the day, I must either be fatigued or was just doing something wrong. That was the only piano that I intentionally didn't charge for the tuning. I felt I didn't deserve to be paid. [Free tunings and getting paid are for another day.] Guess what piano it was? 

  When George heard this, he chuckled and said, "In that case, don't worry about it -- nobody can tune those to any degree of satisfaction". He also advised me to always charge for my work!

  In keeping with the other responses so far, I was an RPT at the time (or whatever we were known as that week), tune verticals left-handed, and observe Lew Herwig's "bottom of the hole" method for tuning verticals. I also knew about "flag-poling", bridge roll, and other phenomena. The combination of knowing about and/practicing certain methods didn't help. Funny thing is, -as- I was tuning, my tests and checks were working out. The finished product was dog--meat. 

  I feel that today I could do... better, but in the 30-plus years since the above scenario, I've never had the [opportunity] to find out. Sometimes life cuts you a break.

  If there's any real help in this reply, it's to not let the anomalies of one piano/scale get to you, especially to the point of discouraging your continued growth and learning curve. 

  Okay, one more thrid-person story. You took a break -- this guy spent four hours, then came back the next day before giving up. We're not only our own worst critics, sometimes we're our own worst enemies!



  On 8/15/07, Joe Wiencek <jwpiano at earthlink.net> wrote:
    List,
    I'm a recent RPT and caut.   Today I was forced to take a break while
    tuning a Steinway Model 45 piano due to the squirminess of the pitch.
    Can anyone suggest a plan of attack on these particular (or any 
    Steinway upright) that makes for an efficient tuning session?
    Thanks,
    Joe


  -- 
  Jim Harvey, RPT
  <harvey.pianotech at gmail.com>
  <www.harveypiano.com> 
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