wrestling an alligator

[Farrell]

The M is the little Baldwin (5' 1" or so). The R is the 5' 8". I tune a few of these pianos without too much trouble, but an L that I service has agraffes and a capo that the strings stick to. Also there is quite a bit of felt between the forward termination and the tuning pins, which seems to create a lot of friction. This L does the same thing - pull, pull, pull and nothing happens, pull a bit more and - BOING-CRACK - it jumps up 20 cents. I use Protec liberally on it every time I tune it - helps some. This piano often takes me two hours to tune - what a pain. The L, R, and M all have very similar plate configurations.

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Piannaman@aol.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, March 22, 2003 2:34 AM
Subject: wrestling an alligator


> List,
> 
> Well, it wasn't really an alligator, but when I was done with the Baldwin 
> M(5' 8" grand), circa 1965, I felt as if I'd been in a river with a large 
> reptile.  ON the surface, it seemed like a nice piano, except the lady told 
> me it hadn't been tuned in probably 20 years.  The husband later informed me 
> that a "cowboy from Oklahoma" was the last guy that tuned it.  Probably told 
> her that it would never tuning again.
> 
> Anyway, after a pitch raise(only 10% +/- flat in the middle, slightly more at 
> the ends), I grappled with trying to get a decent tuning in it.  These pianos 
> have no tuning pin bushings, and I guess that's what makes them want to 
> spring right back to where you started from.  This particular instrument had 
> pins that popped just as they were about to fall into place, and voila--10% 
> flat or sharp again!  And it was whiny as a newborn baby.  Almost as whiny as 
> me right now.
> 
> I can normally do a pitch raise and fine tuning in  1 1/2 hours or slightly 
> less if the piano wasn't way off to start with.  I was battling this monster 
> for 2 1/2 hours.  The lady kvetched a bit when I told her I was going to 
> charge her for a pitch raise.  Of all da noive!
> 
> Question:  would regular tuning over the previous two decades have smoothed 
> out the tuning pin rotation at all?  
> 
> Amazingly, the piano sounded pretty good when I was done.  I hate to admit 
> this, but after that ordeal, I was happy to get to my next customer's Pearl 
> River.
> 
> Dave Stahl
>