[CAUT] Steinway Upright tuning

[Ted Sambell]

Hello Don,

Thank you for your observations. I had begun to think I was all alone, and 
the only one to have had pinblocks pull apart on these beasts, and perhaps 
in some unfathonable way it was my fault. Your colouful comment on the tone 
is well taken; all of these were quite unpleasant sounding and rife with 
false beats. It mystifies me when I hear of technicians who praise them, but 
perhaps they are fortunate enough to encounter exceptions. Or it may be the 
later ones were improved. Franz Mohr told me once that he hated uprights. As 
a Steinway man perhaps he was only talking of Steinway uprights, in which 
case I would concur. I have  never seen recent Hamburg specimens, and wonder 
what they are like.The old ones were great, as were the Americans, despite 
their quirky actions. Jim Busby and  Vince Myrkralo's modifications sound 
wonderful; I would love to see  this work.

Ted Sambell.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Don" <pianotuna at accesscomm.ca>
To: "College and University Technicians" <caut at ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2007 1:21 AM
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Steinway Upright tuning


> Hi Ted,
>
> I don't get to see many Steinway products--but of the 4 small uprights 
> I've
> serviced over the years 3 had pinblock separations. The one that was not
> separated had all the tone quality of a cardboard box with strings. As I'm
> an impact style tuner (thank you Dr. Coleman) I never found tuning them
> much of a chore. The chore for me was telling the client that their prized
> possesion was quite ill.
>
> At 04:47 PM 8/16/2007 -0400, you wrote:
>>
>>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
> Regards,
> Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.P.T.
> Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat
>
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