Guys, Tuning toy pianos will ruin the sound...imho David Ilvedson, RPT Pacifica, CA 94044 ----- Original message ---------------------------------------- From: "Ryan Sowers" <tunerryan at gmail.com> To: pianotech at ptg.org Received: 4/20/2009 5:47:50 PM Subject: Re: [pianotech] Toy piano scaling >I've tuned a few toy pianos so here's my 2 cents worth... >The best method I found to shorten the rod is to use a Dremmel with a >cut-off wheel. Those tines are very hard - you won't get far with a file. >The cut-off wheel allows you to cut a slice very neatly off the end of the >rod. >I've tried soldering to make the pitch go down but it can be difficult to >get the solder to stick. What works really well is to make a small coil out >of music wire that will fit snugly around the end of the tine. If it makes >the pitch too low you can slide it up towards the base of the tine and it >will cause the pitch to rise - kind of like tuning a Fender Rhodes. >In fact, you can cut all the bars slightly short and add a coil to each one >so that you can "fine" tune it by moving the coils. >I had a client who was putting on a toy piano recital and asked me to tune 3 >of them together! It was an interesting challenge. The harmonics are pretty >wacky. They can sound surprisingly nice when their in tune! Most of the >"tuning" done in the factory is haphazard at best. The older ones seem to >sound better. >On Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 2:35 PM, Ron Nossaman <rnossaman at cox.net> wrote: >> David Doremus wrote: >> >>> This is off the wall and off topic but I thought I'd throw it out to the >>> mathematical among us.... >>> >>> I have toy piano for a long time customer who wants it to work for her >>> granddaughter, several of the tines are broken. I have a friend who is a >>> metal worker so making new ones is possible, the question is how to >>> calculate the proper length without simple trial and error. Is there a >>> formula or two for calculating the pitch of a steel rod? Any advice? >>> >>> --Dave >>> >> >> I'd start with one a tad longer than the average of the one above, and the >> one below, and grind to finished length. You can calculate all day long and >> will end up doing that anyway. >> Ron N >> >> >-- >Ryan Sowers, RPT >Puget Sound Chapter >Olympia, WA >www.pianova.net
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