Dave, You wrote; >Someone might have already asked this question and I missed it, but >at the risk of repetition, How long does it take to tune a piano for >a concert and also do the massaging of the duplex lengths and >speaking lengths to tune the duplex area? It seems to me that this >could easily double the time spent, consequently doubling the cost to >the customer. This for a benefit that the protagonists claim is >small, and the antagonists claim doesn't exist. > >Am I missing something here? No one has asked as far as I know. Yes it does take longer to tune a piano when the rear duplexes are tuned - and I do mean tuned here, and not just tapping the duplex blocks around to create a bit of back scale havoc. However, it doesn't take quite so long as you might imagine, since only the top two string sections have a tuned rear duplex. We braid off the back scales for the other sections. Furthermore, you tend to get quite a few a 'freebies' when tuning the backs. Since the hammers are not striking the duplexes, they will therefore tend to be a bit more tuning stable than the speaking lengths in many cases where the climate is controlled. Since the claimed benefits are small as you say, I couldn't image a situation where for every tuning the duplexes would be tuned. At this time, we only do it for selected recording and concert pianos. Since these pianos are kept in good condition, and are housed in venues where the temperature and humidity is controlled, tuning stability is not a problem. Therefore, in these cases it is possible to tune both the duplexes and speaking lengths without going too far overboard. To be frank Dave, I still regard this stuff as pretty marginal also. But we do marginal things don't we when trying to push the boundaries of 'what's achievable'. Today's experimentation will occasionally become tomorrow's default standard. Regards, Ron O -- Overs Pianos Sydney Australia ________________________ Web site: http://www.overspianos.com.au Email: mailto:ron@overspianos.com.au ________________________
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