Judy, Del and list, >Perhaps the more important question is: "Does it really matter?" Unless the >strings are actually binding to the extent that it adversely affects you >ability to tune the piano, no. On the other hand, it does look sloppy and >with careful design it can nearly always be avoided except in the tightest >of scales. > >Even manufacturers of very high-end pianos allowed themselves to become a >little sloppy over the years and simply let this stuff happen. I remember a >"Piano Quality Comparison Chart" that was circulated by a Yamaha dealer in >the mid- to late- 70s that had pictures of this in a Steinway grand and >comparing it with a comparably-sized Yamaha grand. It made a dramatic, if >mis-leading, point. > >Del The Yamaha dealer might also reflect on the matter of 'he who is without drilling errors casting the first stone'. The first model Yamaha C6 had a significant speaking length error on one note around C52, just adjacent to the nearby strut (I don't remember exactly which note since it was some years ago and I only tuned it twice). The error made itself known to me not by sight, but by tuning instability. When tuning the same piano a week later I noticed that the whole unison group was well off pitch. The deviant speaking length had caused the breaking strain percentage to deviate similarly, resulting a tuning shift since the weather had changed. Similar errors were allowed to remain in a C3 model of about 6 - 8 years ago. The first four bichords in the bass were always hopelessly unstable due to obvious errors in the scale. The problem remained for entire production duration of that model. Ron O -- ______________________________ Website: http://www.overspianos.com.au Email: mailto:ron@overspianos.com.au ______________________________
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