On Nov 8, 2010, at 10:56 AM, Scott E. Thile wrote: > This piano has stability issues on one note in particular > (D#6) Is there any D where that isn't a problematic note, along with D6 and C#6? Susan Graham once said in a class that she had asked one of the Steinway guys, I forget whether it was Fred Drasche or Franz Mohr, about that area. The response? "Those are the breaks!" Big help. I have found that the best approach to the notes in that area is to be absolutely certain that the last movement of each tuning pin in the block (enough to create a change of pitch of any magnitude) is in the sharp direction. Whatever else you do in the way of wiggling, flagpoling, playing the note loud/repeatedly, that final move of the seems to be the key. Whichever string slides, it always slides flat (a string might creep sharp a bit, but the screaming unison is always a string something like 10 cents flat, in my experience). So if you leave any instability in a string, it should be tending to go sharp, as a practical solution. And it is better to leave a string a little woowwrr sharp than to lower it to a perfectly clean unison as your last move (unless you can lower it while being sure you aren't actually moving the pin). Sometimes you can pound the heck out of those notes without a bit of movement, and one or more will still go under playing conditions. Frustrating, and hard on the ego <G>. Regards, Fred Sturm fssturm at unm.edu http://www.youtube.com/fredsturm
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