Story and Clark not tuned for 30 years!!

[Avery]

Sam,

I wasn't going to dive into this but I can't get it out of my mind. 
So, If I do, I'll have my "teacher" hat on! :-D

Before I do, though, I have three questions that you don't address in 
your post.

1. Do you tune strictly aurally or use an ETD in some way?

2. App. how flat was the piano? I'm assuming that the lower bass 
wasn't as flat as the middle and the higher treble was much more flat 
than the middle. Correct?

3. Were there any loose tuning pins? I'm assuming from your comment 
about the tuning pins that there weren't.

This will be an "IMO" type of post after over 30 yrs. of doing this, 
but if you're interested, let me know.

Avery Todd
University of Houston

P.S. Warning. This will probably be a fairly long post. :-)

At 09:12 PM 7/21/2006, you wrote:
>Hello all,
>
>The other day, I tuned an old Story and Clark upright. When I opened 
>it, I found the business card of the last tech who tuned it. It was 
>dated 07/26/1976, almost exactly 30 years ago.
>
>Norm Larson of South Haven, Minnesota, are you still around?
>
>A gave it a quick inspection, and it appeared to be in decent shape. 
>I vacuumed it out for the customer. There didn't appear to be any 
>rust on the tuning pins or the strings. Most of the hammers didn't 
>have any grooves, and those that did were very slight. The 
>soundboard didn't have any cracks.
>
>I didn't dare raise it to pitch because it had been so long since it 
>was tuned. I just tuned it to itself. It was the most horribly out 
>of tune piano I have tuned in my short career. When I was over, it 
>still sounded terrible to me, but the customer was thrilled. He said 
>it was the best he ever heard it sound (he's not a piano player). I 
>was honest and didn't pretend that I was happy with how it sounded. 
>I told him that it would take several tunings to make it sound good. 
>He's having me back in six months to give it another tuning.
>
>The pins seemed to twist before they moved, making the instrument 
>very hard to tune. When I moved my tuning hammer, the pitch would go 
>up, then go down when I released it. I ended up very carefully 
>applying constant pressure to the tuning hammer until I felt the 
>tuning pin turn a little. It worked for me, though it took a long 
>time. As far as hammer technique goes, was that something you would have done?
>
>Also, the piano had a sticker that boasted a 50 year guarantee on 
>the sound board. How the heck could Story and Clark make a 50 year 
>guarantee on the sound board? They'd have no idea what conditions 
>the thing would be kept in. What did they make the thing out of? 2" 
>thick plywood?
>
>Sam Choy
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