[CAUT] Tuning a Bluthner

[Susan Kline]

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Very insightful, this . . . .

When nicely tuned the effect seems to give una-corda sweetness with 
decreased attack, while also providing the sustain effect of very 
slightly mis-tuned unisons, as one might do to improve sustain.  I 
like the system, but it's too expensive for most pianos, and is 
perhaps underappreciated by musicians because it is too dependent on 
the technician to tune it nicely.

Don Mannino
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Thanks, Don. You know, I think I can see another reason (other than 
expense) that more piano makers don't adopt the fourth string. Few 
manufacturers can make instruments with the total beatless clarity in 
the treble needed for the self-canceling "perfect" tuning effect to 
take place throughout. Maybe they don't want to - in some ways it 
isn't as musical as having some messiness in there, especially in 
octave 7. That nasty beaty grainy sound in the highest octave which 
we struggle to make clear does project tone past the edge of the stage ...

I think Kawai could qualify for making that kind of clarity, and a 
very few others, but it's pretty rare. Also, Bluethner perhaps has 
some patents still in force? That notch in the bearing is a fairly 
recent development, isn't it? I belive they used a different system earlier?

Best,
Susan Kline


>Susan Kline wrote:
>
>
>----------
>Thinking about the fourth string as I tuned them over and over, it 
>seems to me that Bluethner didn't add it to get more volume. Rather, 
>if you listen to the first three without the fourth, the timbre sort 
>of goes white, like when really clear strings are tuned EXACTLY to 
>each other? They seem to cancel out some of each other's sound? And 
>then you add the fourth, and the sort of messy front termination 
>adds a little bit of wildness to it all, so it sings.
>  ---------------------------------


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