"Tuned" Pitch Drop

[Isaac OLEG]

Sometime we want to believe so strongly that the piano is still
tuneable that we forget it is basically not !

Not always the good service to the customer , we certainly should live
from time to time saying the piano may be repaired, even (and more
probably) with old customers of ours :>(

Best regards

Isaac OLEG

Entretien et reparation de pianos.

PianoTech
17 rue de Choisy
94400 VITRY sur SEINE
FRANCE
tel : 033 01 47 18 06 98
fax : 033 01 47 18 06 90
cell: 06 60 42 58 77

> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : pianotech-bounces@ptg.org
> [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org]De la
> part de Clyde Hollinger
> Envoye : samedi 19 avril 2003 00:31
> A : Pianotech
> Objet : Re: "Tuned" Pitch Drop
>
>
> Terry,
>
> Do you tune all unisons as you go?  If you do, I don't have
> an answer.
>
> But if you do one string for each key and then do the
> unisons afterward, might it be that those tuning pins
> slipped before you did the unisons, and you then tuned the
> other string to the incorrect lower pitch?
>
> But that's no good, either, if the phenomenon just occurred
> in the last week or so.  Is this her only piano, or does
> she use it only sporadically and maybe just didn't notice
> the flat notes until now?
>
> This week I tuned a 1911 Knabe grand piano that had very
> loose tuning pins scattered throughout (needs a complete
> rebuild it will never get, I reckon).  I've tuned this
> piano every six months since 1997, and it never had the
> problem to this extent before.  Sometimes we have answers,
> and sometimes we don't.  Sorry.
>
> Regards,
> Clyde
>
> Farrell wrote:
>
> > I got a call from a piano teacher - a regular customer -
> yesterday with a 70 or 80 year old Baldwin L. The last
> several tunings I have been warning her that numerous
> tuning pins appear to barely be holding and sometime soon
> we will likely have to do something about that. Last tuning
> I actually had to tap in a few pins to get them to hold
> (maybe three months ago).
> >
> > She calls yesterday and says that several bass strings
> are way flat and she just can't play the piano like that.
> We go over options to repair loose pins. She's not ready to
> restring (piano needs it), so we decide to go with CA glue
> on pins. So I check out piano. Indeed, nine bass notes
> ranged from 25 to 60 cents flat (every other note on piano
> was within a cent or two of target - a few bass notes were
> a tad sharp - likely in response to the few notes going flat).
> >
> > 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.
>
> _______________________________________________
> pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
>