Wound trichords in a spinet??? Does an ETD help?

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

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In a message dated 7/10/02 2:00:14 PM Central Daylight Time, 
Piannaman@AOL.COM writes:


> I just tuned a Betsy Ross spinet made by Lester.  Interesting little pianos. 
>  Built with a fair amount of integrity in the materials(no plastic in the 
> elbows of this one).  At least they were trying to make a decent insrument. 
> 
> I thought that I'd tuned a few of them in the past, but I didn't remember 
> that there were at least five  notes below the bass-treble break that were 
> wound tri-chords.  AAArggh.  I guess this would have been the time to use 
> my ETD.  All kinds of ungodly noises emanated from these strings.  I could 
> not get a unison to sound like a unison.  String speaking lengths were 
> different, the windings were bunching up at the top.   
> 
> Has anybody tuned one of these using an ETD?  Any luck with that section??  
> I guess if it doesn't sound good, at least you can point out that the 
> computer wouldn't lie. 
> 
>  

I'm glad you found some redeeming value in the Betsy Ross spinet, many who 
write on here wouldn't.  Actually, I think you would do best tuning aurally.  
The problem you describe with 3 strings in which the windings are not exactly 
the same is called a "snarl".  What is happening is 3 different amounts of 
inharmonicity.  Don't be frustrated by that, just accept the fact that it is 
impossible to tune the type of unison you are capable of on a better made and 
designed piano.

You simply get it as close as you can without stressing out about it and move 
on.  Most ETD's offer a calculated program that focuses on one particular 
partial.  That calculation is likely to be incorrect for this kind of piano.  
There may be ways of resetting the ETD to make it match the scale design but 
by the time you've done that, you could have had it already done and moved on 
by tuning aurally.  Your ear will be able to sort out these mismatches and 
make the best compromise the quickest.  

It is not necessary or even advisable to make excuses about the way the piano 
sounds to the customer.  Usually, a person with this type of piano is not 
very discriminating.  They are used to the way it sounds.  Certainly, no 
other technician has been able to do anything about the problem so you can be 
sure that none has been able to make it sound better than you can.

This goes for false beats and poorly wound strings in bigger and better 
pianos too.  It's better to just do the best you can and be done with it.  If 
a customer does pick up on the imperfection, that is the time to explain that 
it can't really be made to sound better.  If changing of strings or 
structural repair will solve these problems on a better piano, then offer 
that as the solution, don't say, "It's not my fault".

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin
 <A HREF="http://www.billbremmer.com/">Click here: -=w w w . b i l l b r e m m e r . c o m =-</A> 

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