Talking Sweet to a 1098

[Z! Reinhardt]

Hi Everybody!

Today it finally happened -- I had the opportunity to tune a Steinway 1098.
 This was one I have been servicing for maybe 3 years now, and today was
the first time I came to it in just over a year.

Unbelievable -- there was very little work that had to be done.  Many of
the unisons were still just that -- unisons.  It was enough to make me
think the piano had been enjoying the services of another technician behind
my back, but the customer assured me that I was the last person to have
tuned it.

A n y w a y ...

The *secret weapons* are an impact hammer, a SAT, and a highly developed
sense for when the tuning pin and string are *neutral* at pitch.  By
*neutral* I mean that the the pin isn't twisted and ready to flagpole, and
that the string tension is even throughout the length of the string. 
Otherwise, the pitch will change as matters arrive at the *neutral* state. 
The trouble with 1098s is that they are very subtle about changes in pitch,
and the pitch can go sharp as easily as it can go flat.  The SAT is very
quick at picking up deviations in pitch.  The *acid test* that works best
is to do a series of moderate test blows rather than just 1 or 2 really
hard ones.  If the lights on the SAT stand still through 6-8 moderate
blows, then you can be assured that the pitch is there to stay.

This business of the strings and pins being *neutral* is important in
pitch-raises or lowerings if you don't want the pitch to creep all over the
place after doing a rough pass.  A quick tap of the impact hammer in the
opposite direction is usually enough to eliminate the worst of the pitch
drift before leaving the pin for the next pin.

Well yes, the 1098s are less forgiving than other pianos in their size
class when it comes to how close to pitch they want to be before they will
accept a fine tuning.  They have to be awfully close, that's all, to
minimize the amount of drift if any.  Other pianos may allow us to get away
with doing an all-in-one moderate pitch-correction and fine tuning, and
perhaps many of us have been spoiled by such pianos.  Then when we come to
a 1098, we have to revert to our best behavior and be patient, doing the
necessary pitch correction before the fine tuning even when it doesn't seem
to need much of a correction.

Just some observations ---

Z! Reinhardt RPT
Ann Arbor  MI
diskladame@provide.net