Greetings all, I tuned a 1957 Hensel 5' Grand that had been restrung by someone else this past June. My tuning was the first one since the restringing. No other work was performed besides new strings and tuning pins. The pin block is still the old one but on the invoice the customer showed me, they had put in new oversized pins, although the size they used was not listed. Tuning was, at least for me, a nightmare...! I was gently pulling on the first tuning pin to get a feel for it, but it wouldn't budge. I gave it a short impact type pull and it jumped about 30 cents and made a high pitched ratcheting type noise that resonated through the piano. Luckily, it was about 40 cents flat to begin with! It felt like it jumped in increments throughout a very short movement. Every single tuning pin was extremely tight and would not move in small increments no matter how hard I tried. I finally figured out just the right amount of impact to get it to move close to where I wanted it, as they all needed about the same amount of movements, but small movements were impossible. This ratcheting type feeling and loud sound was the same in both CW and CCW movement on every single pin, every single time it was moved. At least it had 3 tight coils and the beckets were all lined up... :-) Needless to say, it wasn't my best tuning, but I explained (and demonstrated) to the client what was going on, and in the end, he seemed genuinely pleased with the end result. My question... Is there something that can be done to make the tuning pins move easier and smoother? Or does this just need lots of movement and time? Anything else I can do? They agreed with my advice for tuning frequency following a restringing and want me to come back in 2 months and tune it again. I'm hoping to have a solution or answer before I have to tame the beast once again. Thanks in advance... Rob McCall McCall Piano Service, LLC Murrieta, CA rob at mccallpiano.com www.mccallpiano.com 951-698-1875
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