Concert Tuning & Prep Sequence

[Andrew and Rebeca Anderson]

Rick,
If this piano hasn't been tuned in years you should plan on a multi 
step plan to get it up to pitch.  Here is what works well for me:
	1: Do an overpull pitch correction pass with individual unisons 
reasonably close to each other.
	2: Voice the rear string terminations and bearings.  You will be 
surprise how many loose hitch pin loops and crooked string paths 
you 	find going forward to the bridge.  Then tighten the curve 
leading forward to the rear bridge pin.  Then tighten the curve 
leading away from 	the front bridge pin.  (In the conjectured 
possibility that a string has climbed up a bridge pin, it will be put 
back down on the bridge 	without hammering necessary.) Most likely 
you have pulled the old curve into the speaking length and pushing a 
little way out into the 	speaking length will help to ease it and 
reduce noise.  This will drop the pitch significantly (20-30 cents on 
a D that was only 15 cents 	flat when I came to it.)
	2a: If you are getting lots of false beating after this in the 
treble there may be loose bridge pins.  Some ultra-thin CA applied to 
the 	base of each bridge pin in the treble sections will help a lot 
and may push pitch up a little (why I can only conjecture).  Do this 
before 	three if you think it is needed.
	3. Do another overpull pitch correction pass with good unisons.
	4. Lift and level all the strings in the agraffe section (don't 
overdo this and groove the brass).  Tighten the curve leading to the 
bearing on 	the front duplex.  Lift on the back side 	of the capo and 
then on the front side.  Level any strings that don't end up level 
after lifting
	5. Fine tune the piano, some unisons will have slipped with leveling.
This procedure is what I routinely do for a significant 
pitch-correction on a grand piano.  It fills in most of the "wells" 
of instability.  I then get into the action checking for bedding and 
then regulate everything.  I usually lube the hammer knuckles with 
micro-fine teflon.  Pianists really seem to notice and appreciate the 
reduced friction at the knuckle.  Of-course there is the 
psycho-acoustic affect going on too... ;-)  A little sugar coating on 
the hammers, was that a C7? maybe more than a little...and you're 
good to go.  Depending on how solid the piano is (pin-block, bridge, 
board, beams and case squirming around under a few more tons of 
tension than before) you will probably have only a fine-tuning to do 
the next day.  Yamahas are usually quite solid.

Good luck, and do tell how it went.

Andrew Anderson