Wim/taking too long to tune ??

[Farrell]

I've started to notice just the opposite. The junk pianos tend to tune
quickly and the better piano take longer for me. The other day I tuned three
pianos. One newer Kimball console, one 50s Kimbal spinet (argg! two Kimballs
in one day!), and the last one a 1970s Kawai 6-foot-or-so grand in excellent
condition. The two Kimballs were absolutely two of the most wreched pianos I
have tuned/heard. False beats for two or three octaves, mismatched bass
strings, horrible breaks, etc. After raising the pitch of both of them, each
one took no more than an hour to tune (pretty fast for me). I just stick the
string as close as is possible to where it seems it should be and leave it.
It ain't gonna sound any better no matter what you do. When I was done - Man
did it sound bad - dazed and confused! But I think if I spent another hour
on either of them, no improvement would be had.

The Kawaii took me two hours to tune. I used two passes as it was about two
cents flat in bass and tenor and two cents sharp in treble. I spent 30
minutes on the first pass and and 90 minutes on the second, fine tuning
pass. I spent more time with unisons, etc. because it was possible to do a
good job. When I was done - Man did it sound good - clear and right-on!

Just another twist.

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joseph Garrett" <joegarrett@earthlink.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2002 12:33 AM
Subject: Wim/taking too long to tune ??


> Wim,
> You mistook me as the one who made that statement. But, As long as you
> asked, I take a lot longer than anyone has fessed up to on this thread.
It's
> the way I was taught and I chose to take my time. Also, as you know, I
work
> on the stuff you guys refuse to do, which takes a helluva lot longer, to
do
> an adequate job. When I tune a square grand, on the first visit, I block
out
> the entire day, because there are always problems to address. If you've
ever
> tried to extract a square grand action, you know what I'm talking about.
If
> not, then I'll tell you, if you try to extract a square grand action
quickly
> you're asking for major problems.
> Joe
>