string seating/ was String massage

[Yardarm103669107@AOL.COM]

J Patrick:
This says a lot about the scaling and bridge design of some of the pianos you 
are referring to. If the piano was generally around pitch before you did 
anything, and then you seated the strings and experienced the drop as 
radically as you describe, then you need to ask yourself where the unequal 
tension in the string actually resides, and what does seating the string do 
to free it up? With that great of a drop (if it's a general rule in your 
experience), then the string is moving along its length quite dramatically 
from the act of seating which is usually characterized by movement in the 
generalized vertical axis of the string; if this is true, then the act of 
seating the string first is premature. The tension increases segment by 
segment toward the front, and is greatest in the segment from the tuning pin 
to the counterbearing. On pianos with high counterbearing angles and 
consequent high friction coefficients at the counterbearing bar and capo, the 
string is not going to move easily during tuning and stabilizing. When the 
pitch jumps as much as you describe during seating, then the seating itself 
is not effective, but need to be repeated until the whole system is as stable 
as possible. Perhaps, with your hammer shank, or with a thin brass punch with 
a slot in the end, tap the counterbearing segment down, away from the capo, 
and release some of the tension in that segment first. Tap the waste segment 
beyond the duplex or aliquot; tap the segment between the duplex and bridge 
away from the bridge pin, not toward it. Measure changes as you go along if 
you like. If there are radical pitch changes that require overall retuning, 
then do that before you fine tune; then tap again throughout and seat the 
strings last; then fine tune. 

There is much myth about string seating, unequal string tension in the 
different segments, etc. Each piano is different, but if you look logically 
at the mechanical structure from counterbearing angles on, and realize the 
direction of tension flow in the string, then this becomes easier to 
understand. The one thing most misunderstood is that seating the strings is a 
single behavior that will solve many ills when it is only one of many 
behaviors that is needed to stabilize and achieve firm terminations. 

Paul Revenko-Jones