..this bass is still out of tune..

[Michael Magness]

On 8/20/07, David M. Porritt <dporritt at smu.edu> wrote:
>
> Phil:
>
> I had a piano teacher years ago who had a Mason & Hamlin 50" upright.  She
> then bought a Baldwin SF10 and had big expectations of it.  After I tuned
> it
> she played C#1 G#1 fifth and said it didn't sound good.
>
> Sometimes I'm proudest of the times I haven't laughed out loud!
>
> dp
>
> ____________________
> David M. Porritt, RPT
> dporritt at smu.edu
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On
> Behalf
> Of Phil Bondi
> Sent: Monday, August 20, 2007 2:36 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)
>
> I had a lady that bought a new Kimball Spinet years ago the dealer sent me
out for the "free" tuning. She wanted me to fix the top dozen keys, she said
they didn't work, I checked them and they worked just fine, I finally
figured out that she couldn't hear them. Her husband came home for lunch, I
tried to show him, HE couldn't hear them either. I was tuning the piano and
thinking furiously how I was going to prove this when their daughter stopped
by, saved! She couldn't hear them either from the same point as both
parents(of course, ain't heredity grand?). About then it occured to me, I
went to the last tone they could hear, went to the next one up and tuned it
down to that same pitch, now they could hear it worked. I showed them that
both were at the same pitch, then slowly pulled it back to correct pitch
with them watching. Now they understood, I showed them, visually that the
rest of the keys from there up worked. They didn't complain about it
anymore, they also never had me back!


-- 
Michael Magness
Magness Piano Service
608-786-4404
www.IFixPianos.com
email mike at ifixpianos.com
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