"Tuned" Pitch Drop

[Farrell]

No, these were wound bass strings. Don't think strings were hung up. Can you change a string by 50 cents by pressing on it?

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Don" <pianotuna@accesscomm.ca>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, April 18, 2003 9:30 AM
Subject: Re: "Tuned" Pitch Drop


> Hi Ron,
> 
> Want to back up your "calculated odds" with some reference material? Or are
> you just speaking "poetically".
> 
> Terry, if these "unisons" were bichord plain steel wire, I'd look at the
> hitch pins. How is the "friction" element on this instrument? Any chance
> the strings got hung up between the pin and the Agraffe on the last tuning?
> 
> Perhaps some helpful person pressed on the "sharp" string with a finger to
> try to clear the unison?
> 
> At 10:08 AM 4/18/2003 -0500, you wrote:
> >
> >>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
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
> >
> >
> 
> Regards,
> Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.M.T., R.P.T.
> 
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