This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment Hello Don P and List I have a few squares on my regular rounds - in museums and country = houses. I had to make my own tuning "T" hammer to tune them with. I only = use a "T" hammer on these as a lever takes too much room and cannot get = the handle in the right position because of the high sides around the = wrest plank. Two of my squares are built around 1780 or so. One uses = whale-bone for its damper springs. Most use vellum hinges for the = hammers and dampers. Go armed with a vellum saw and some vellum - which = you can get from any early music timpanist as off-cuts from replacing = skins. The action will probably be in two sections The treble section = will only be about one 8ve. You may be lucky and find the tops of the = keys have been marked with an "O" with a line through it to indicate = under which keys the screws holding the action in place are situated. = You may have difficulty in pulling up the name-board and the key = slip-rail to remove them - but that's what you'll have to do to get the = action out. BEWARE! The damper wires may be attached directly to the = tails of the keys. If this is so you'll have to unscrew them on-by-one - = a very dicey task if they've been in situ for a few hundred years - = before you can extract the action. The tuning pins may go along the = spine or along the treble end of the instrument. Before you start tuning = use coloured centre-rail washers to indicate the A's and different = colours for the F's and the C's - you will find this incredibly useful = in finding your way around the tuning. For Squares I always use an ETD = with many pitches to set the bearings. I have a KORG Chromatic Tuner = CA-30 which does quite nicely as it is impossible to be wholly accurate = on these old beasts. For a wedge I use a very small rubber wedge = otherwise the flexibility of those strings will not allow the wedge to = stay upright. I dare say you could use a bit of hard check felt suitably = cut. Finally.... discover and keep to the ruling pitch of the = instrument. Altering pitch on them is courting possible disaster.... = AND..... have fun! Regards from a Sunny Village in the Sussex Downs Michael G.(UK) ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/e8/78/c9/f5/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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