False Beats

[Farrell]

I rassle with this also William. Two octaves of nothing but false beats - and sometimes it's not even a Kimball! They will sound so bad that I fear the owner will think that I skipped tuning the whole treble! I tuned five pianos at a church yesterday and one of them was an older Aeolian/Cable spinet. Totally trashed with false beats. The other pianos were OK. If I were the music director I would think that the piano dude must have been in a hurry on that spinet.

Whether to point it out to the piano owner or not is a question that I have not fully resolved for myself. I find myself informing the piano owner less and less frequently over time.

If a whole area is plagued with false beats, and it appears that loose bridge pins are a major contributor, I would recommend unhitching all strings in that section, removing all bridge pins, re-notch, drop of thin epoxy (I use West System) in hole, dip new pin in epoxy, drive pin home, clean up area, wait at least one day (I like to wait two days), put strings back.

Check archives. Tons of detailed stuff on epoxy repair and CA repairs for bridge pins.

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "William R. Monroe" <pianowrmonroe@hotmail.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, March 01, 2002 9:22 PM
Subject: Re: False Beats


Kevin,

Not my piano, but my tuning!!  I finished a tuning and was sick.  I kind of felt the need to point out the false beats to the client in an effort to save face on the tuning.  Essentially demonstrated the problem by muting two of the three strings and said that if it is too much of a distraction (for his two daughters who play) that we could try a couple things to fix them.  What is your take on removing the bridge pins and putting epoxy in there and seeing what that does (if they are loose)?

William R. Monroe
PTG Associate
Salt Lake City, UT

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Kevin E. Ramsey 
  To: pianotech@ptg.org 
  Sent: Friday, March 01, 2002 7:11 PM
  Subject: Re: False Beats


      You know, Bill. False beats are in almost every piano. Is the customer complaining, or are you the customer? If the customer doesn't seem to notice, then don't bring it up. If it's your piano and you really want to get rid of those beats, it may be possible, if you want to re-pin and re-notch the bridge, re-radius the bearing bar, and re-string. I've come to the conclusion that 90% of all false beats come from bridge pins that are either not perfectly aligned with the notch, or have some looseness in the bridge. Just my two cents worth. When I was new to the trade I went on a quest to find the answer for how to quickly and effectively get rid of false beats. Nobody really had the answer. Sometimes it can actually be bad wire work, but I really think that you could restring a whole section and if that's all you did, you'd still have false beats.
      But that's just my opinion. 

      Wait,,, I just read you posting again,,,,,,,, I missed that part about it being a Kimball..     Forget it Bill. Nothing's going to work.


    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: William R. Monroe 
    To: Pianotech 
    Sent: Friday, March 01, 2002 6:13 PM
    Subject: False Beats


    List,

    I serviced a 1973 Kimball Grand today that has some serious false beats in the upper tenor and treble sections.  Tried dressing them to the bridge and did not noticeably help.  Looked over key points and everything seems to be in order (bridge pinning and notching look good, agraffes seem to be applying adequate downpressure).  Is there anything I may have overlooked before I suggest replacing some of the offenders?

    William R. Monroe
    Associate PTG
    Salt Lake City, UT