test blows

[Don]

Hi Corte,

Define stable. Would 2 cents change over 30 months fit? Of course this is
*only* possible if humidity is controlled.

David, of course the client pays (or in the case of tapping on strings does
the labor themselves). We are not running a charity. Yes some coils need to
be lifted--but I do that with an impact type of coil lifter--so I'm still
tapping--just upwards.

I'd love to have someone show me how to tighten beckets. So far my efforts
have produced no change in pitch--which I assume should be there. Comments?

I believe that a more accurate term would be "settling the pin" rather than
"setting the pin". What is the vector of force on the pin from the string?
If the pin is settled in that direction it can move no farther.

Compression set has been a very common thread recently. If the
board/bridges have "finished" that process then the instrument will be more
stable--but it won't be a piano necessarily any more. There are exceptions.

At 12:31 AM 8/19/2003 -0600, you wrote:
>I've heard stories that Franz Mohr used extremely hard test blows when
>tuning.  Of course, I've also heard that his tunings were rock-solid
>stable.  There seems to be a correlation here.
>
>Any further comments?
>
>Corte Swearingen
>    I'm certainly not going through the following hassle:
><<Third step tap at the hitch pin, before and after rear duplex, before
>bridge pin, on bridge pin, in front of bridge pin, middle of the string
>length on the bridge, behind sounding length bridge pin, on sounding length
>bridge pin, sounding length, and lift strings on tuning pin side of
>aggraff.>>  Not without charging quite a bit extra, anyhow.
>    <<The coils had never been tapped and the pitch dropped over 100 cents
on some notes.>>
> Yes, but what I find more often are beckets that need squeezing farther
into the pin.  Sometimes the coils need pulling up as much as tapping down,
to get them tightly against each other and square to the pin.
>    And, rock-solid only lasts until the humidity changes enough to swell
or relax the soundboard.  What's puzzling is that some older pianos hardly
drift out of tune at all, even over a period of 5 years.    
>    --David Nereson, RPT

Regards,
Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.P.T.

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