[pianotech] Oversized tuning pins

[Leslie Bartlett]

I have a church client which (who?) purchased a 9-foot Shigeru, and two
Estonias.  One of the Estonias was so bad that every pin popped, and I
finally told them it was un-tunable. Short story....  I told them I thought
I could fix it, so called the guys from whom they got it and was to have a
shot. Seven hours later jerking pins back and forth, there were only about
two pins popping and the rest just quite tight.  
les Bartlett Piano Service 

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of David Love
Sent: Friday, November 27, 2009 8:55 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Oversized tuning pins


Those are the kinds of jobs I am moved to return to the person who did the
ace restringing job.  Unfortunately, once a nightmare, always a nightmare.
It won't likely loosen up and won't get much better, at least not in your
lifetime.  If it were me, I wouldn't be encouraging them to tune it that
often.  At least not if they are going to call me.  Maybe a zapper, but
you'll have to explain the smoke.  

David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com


-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Rob McCall
Sent: Friday, November 27, 2009 6:10 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: [pianotech] Oversized tuning pins

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