Wee Aeolian Spinet Player

[Dennis Benson]

terry,
    I have one that I tune. Make sure you have a string tied to your mutes
so they won't fall down behind the player mechanism (from experience). The
tuning isn't easy because of the lousy tone and inharmonicity.

Good luck.

Dennis


-----Original Message-----
From: Terry Beckingham <beckingt@mb.sympatico.ca>
To: pianotech@ptg.org <pianotech@ptg.org>
Date: Saturday, March 11, 2000 5:17 PM
Subject: Wee Aeolian Spinet Player


>Hi Gang,
>
>I just returned from tuning the smallest piano that I have ever seen. It
was
>an Aeolian Spinet "PIANOLA" with only 63 keys, and a "Ukelano" player
>mechanism. The only number available as a possible serial number is 36319,
>which according to the Pierce Piano Atlas would make it 1980. The piano was
>purchased new in 1984 and has never been tuned until today. After my
>experience today, I can see why. The only saving grace was that it had only
>two string unisons.
>
>This piano is so small that the player mechanism blocks access to the
tuning
>pin area. It appears that one has to remove the player mechanism in order
to
>tune it. With the help of the owner, I was able to remove some of the
screws
>holding the player and ease it back enough that I could get my tuning
hammer
>with the shortest head onto the pins. There was also a rinky-tink rail
which
>was in the way. Only one end of this could be unscrewed and then it was
held
>out of the way so I could get the tuning hammer on the pins. It was a two
>person operation to tune this thing.
>
>Has anyone else ever come across one of these, and if so how did you go
>about tuning it? I'd be interested to know as I am supposed to go back in 3
>months to do it all over again. The pitch as anywhere from 50 to 100 cents
>flat. The piano is badly out of regulation, but I can't do anything about
>that without removing the player mechanism.
>
>I'll be going off list tomorrow for the next week, so any replies after
>tonight should be sent to me off list.
>
>Thanks in advance
>
>Terry Beckingham
>Associate Member PTG