..this bass is still out of tune..

[Delwin D Fandrich]

How old is this piano? More specifically, does it have "SynchroTone" stringing?
If so, the only thing that will fix what he is hearing is a new set of more
conventionally scaled bass strings.

Del 

| -----Original Message-----
| From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org 
| [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Phil Bondi
| Sent: August 20, 2007 12:36 PM
| To: Newtonville
| Subject: ..this bass is still out of tune..
| 
| Hi all. A funny story to share:
| 
| Baldwin L - in good condition with a recently retired doctor 
| at the steering wheel. The piano was recently moved, and the 
| doctor was concerned with the bass being in tune. I assured 
| him the bass was no more out of tune than the rest of the 
| piano, so I proceeded. As I was tuning, the doctor asked 
| again about the bass and the possibility of having to 
| 'replace the tuning pins' because they're not holding a 
| tune'...sounds like he's been reading too much internet 
| garbage lately..anyway, I assured him his torque was just 
| fine..and I advised him that replacing anything regarding the 
| pins was unnecessary.
| 
| I noticed the regulation needing some work, so we made 
| another appointment to work on it. That appointment was 
| today. The first words out of his mouth " the bass is out of 
| tune. Please take care of it". Well, there was a slight 
| wobble in D#2, so I fixed that..
| 
| After taking care of the regulation problems, I asked him to 
| sit down and play. The first thing he does is play a 10th 
| from C1 to E2 - he tells me "that doesn't sound good"..I 
| agreed. There is such a thing as "low interval limits". I 
| know I didn't fully convince him that such a phenomenon 
| exists, but he agreed he's never seen music written down 
| there with that 10th.
| 
| He did like the work that I did to the
| regulation - it just needed some TLC - blow distance, 
| let-off, drop, etc. - re-surface the hammers - it played nice 
| when I got done, but I can't do anything to a C1-E2 10th to 
| make that sound good!
| 
| -Phil Bondi(Fl)
| 
|