1960s Steinway console

Kevin S. Riggs lobeliac@ipass.net
Sat, 20 Mar 1999 12:38:38 -0500


Greetings John and List,

 I've been lurking for about a year, and just had to respond to this
one.
I have the great (mis)fortune to own one of these beast, a 1961 model
100.
I also tune one for a client.
 Sympathetic vibrations seem to be the most likely culprit. These things
sing like a howling dog when they're not perfectly tuned.
I have found double muting all of the single bass and most of the double
reduces a large percentage of the false beats. the second strip mute
goes
closer to the bridge preferably between nodes. I have also muted the
entire
upper octave to dampen some of the higher partials.
 I tune aurally and the false beats initially drove me crazy.
I designed and built a series of selectable band pass filters to help me
hear the partials I was trying to tune. The output goes to a set of
headphones
and gives you only the the partial you've selected.
 Now that I've learned which crazy beats are which, the "hearing aid" is
no
longer necessary.

Good luck with the screaming demon!

Kevin S. Riggs

Associate in NC


This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC