Curious - US vs. Jap. built Yamaha verts.

[Benny L. Tucker]

Hi Barrie;
    Here in the Thomaston plant, the conveyor moves at 10.5 - 11 minute
intervals. In that time, the tuner in the first booth sets one string of
each unison with the scope, and does all the unisons aurally for notes 1 -
56.
The tuner in the next booth does the same for notes 57 - 88. After the
pianos move through the tuning booths, it travels down the regulation line,
and finally to the voicing booth. Usually after voicing, there is enough
time to do some unison touch up work before the line moves again. Then after
final case assembly, touch-up, and final inspection, the pianos go into the
warehouse. The warehouse is where we do final tuning, regulation, touch-up
and inspection all over again before shipment. This line moves even faster
at 8.5 minutes per move, but we have 3 tuners on that line, so it all comes
out about the same.

Benny L. Tucker
Yamaha Factory Tuner
Precision Piano Tuning & Repair
Thomaston, Ga.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Barrie Heaton" <piano@a440.co.uk>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 02, 2002 8:08 AM
Subject: Re: Curious - US vs. Jap. built Yamaha verts.


> In message <004301c209df$7e5a4f80$c0e227a2@computer>, Benny L. Tucker
> <precisionpiano@alltel.net> writes
> >. Time constraints limit what can be accomplished as far as quality
tuning
> >goes.We do the best we can within the time allowed per piano.
>
> Is it 16  mins per section I think that is what it is in the UK  as that
> is the speed of the conveyer belt it finishes one piano every 16 mins,
> as I remember  one guy puts the scale and bass in,  then in the next
> booth one has the treble to do,  further down the line  it gets some
> more tunings plus a few visits to the plonking machine, which knocks
> hell out of it.  It then drops of the conveyer belt,  off to despatch
> if the piano stays in there more than 2 days it gets a complete tuning
> by one guy. The tension has been on the back for about 6 weeks before
> the back hits the main conveyer belt.
>
>
>
> Barrie,
>
> --
> Barrie Heaton      PGP key on request           http://www.a440.co.uk/
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