Country units

jason kanter jkanter@rollingball.com
Sat, 12 Feb 2005 20:24:07 -0800


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I love these phrases, thank you so much.
  -----Original Message-----
  From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org]On
Behalf Of Cy Shuster
  Sent: Saturday, February 12, 2005 4:58 PM
  To: Pianotech
  Subject: Country units


  I love tuning for people here in southern West Virginia.  They're
down-to-earth, and a lot more sophisticated than you might expect.  Very
much into music: churches with a dozen instruments in the sanctuary
(guitars, drums, keyboards).

  However, I've found different ways of expressing concepts, especially
since there's so much familiarity with guitars.  For example, instead of
"100 cents flat", I just say "It's a fret low".  Instead of "a piano has
between 220 and 250 strings", I say "tuning a piano is like tuning 40
guitars".  That one even got my attention!  Since I always make at least two
passes, one tuning's the equivalent of 80 guitars -- 120 with a pitch raise!
To describe a pitch raise, I give the example of moving a house to a new
foundation.  If one corner was way low and you jacked it up, something else
would get thrown out as a result, so you'd have to go around once to get it
close before trying to make the floors really level.

  Instead of "tuning pins pressed into a laminated pinblock", I say "they're
nailed into holes drilled into butcher block", or I use the example of
violin pegs with a friction fit instead of guitar tuners with gears.
"Delamination" is "like kitchen chairs coming unglued in wintertime".  I
often take off the bottom cabinet panel on uprights and point out the
similarities to a guitar: strings terminating at the rim, running over a
bridge.

  What I like the best is still to check out a piano, and when they ask me
how bad it is, saying simply "It's a fret low".

  --Cy Shuster--
  Bluefield, West By God Virginia


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