"Tuned" Pitch Drop

[Ron Nossaman]

>BUT - five of these notes were wound bicords. AND BOTH STRINGS ON ALL FIVE 
>NOTES WERE EQUALLY FLAT! I'm saying that the notes that were 25 to 60 
>cents flat had perfectly tuned unisons. Obviously, one would think that 
>pins letting loose would be an arbitrary occurrence - one here, one there. 
>It's almost like someone that knew how to tune a unison but not an octave 
>tried to "fix" the tuning. I asked her, and she said no one has gone near 
>the piano with a tuning wrench (maybe I should have asked about vice 
>grips!) since I was last there.
>
>Anyway, anyone have a reasonable explanation how this could happen? Boy, I 
>don't know what the odds are against a random occurrence like this, but 
>I'm sure they are not quite as good as winning the lottery.
>
>Terry Farrell


Two more of these occurrences, and she's eligible for sainthood. Presuming 
they were tuned at pitch in the first place (forgive me, since I don't 
doubt that they were, but it IS a necessary condition), the odds of this 
occurring naturally are somewhat less than those of the piano being hit by 
one or more meteorites on each of two successive Thursdays. Not that it 
isn't possible, but you could become very rich very quickly betting against 
it - assuming someone rich and foolish enough to cover the bet. The block 
isn't moving, because the paired strings on all these unisons are different 
overall lengths, and would go out of tune differently. Same thing with 
anything else moving spontaneously. There's no rational pattern, and nature 
is above all rational. That leaves people, who often aren't. Someone broke 
into her house while she was gone and put them there. Check the VCR clock, 
and see if they changed that too.

Ron N