This morning, I tuned a Baldwin K (about a 6'? grand) in a high school. Rebuilt (good job) about 20 years ago, and I'd last tuned it in March this year at about 30%RH. It was at 65%RH today, so I expected the usual 20 cents sharp in the low tenor, with the rest not that far off. Wrong! It was about 6 beats sharp at A-4, tapering down to about 1 beat at A-0, with no real discontinuity across the bass/tenor break. Strange. From A-4 it went up to about 8 beats sharp at the strut, and about 12 beats sharp at the next strut, tapering back down to about 2 beats sharp at C-8. Again, the beat rates progressed smoothly, even across the struts. It's like it had been tuned that sharp intentionally. Now the fun part. Going from about 8 beats sharp at G-5, G#-5 to C-6 were all close to 3 semitones low, with C#-6 going right back to the 8 beats sharp plan!! No detectable gremlins other than the tuning. I asked the guy when he came in to frisk everyone and confiscate that tuning hammer, and he swore up and down that nobody had touched it, and it had just gone out like that. Right. Hello, I'm Babbakazoo! The other three pianos were typical, so I wasn't just having a *really* bad day when I tuned them in March, or at least not all day. Tomorrow morning, I get to drive an hour to look at a Steinway D with reported tonal problems in octave 5-6. Gonna need more CA. Ron N
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