[pianotech] tuning without strip-muting

[Dale Erwin]

Double dog dang fast dittos Dave
 I can strip an entire piano in 1 minute. Stability is not a problem and agree with everything else you said.  
different strokes folks. Prove my shop motto once again....WHatever works
 Dale


Dale Erwin R.P.T.



  First of all, I don't strip; I leave my clothes on.  Nor do I strip the piano.  If I were to strip the piano, I be hauling in paint & varnish remover, drop cloths, steel wool, denatured alcohol, scrapers, etc.  
   Rather, I strip-mute the piano.  I've tried tuning using only rubber (or felt) mutes and it takes way too long, regardless of the sequence, or procedure.  I like temperament strips.  It barely takes me 2 minutes to insert them, and I have the choice of either a) tuning all the middle strings so that I can then do checks of any type of interval from a minor third to a quadruple octave without worrying about unison strings that have slipped, thus "muddying" the intervals I'm trying to check, OR  I can b) tune unisons as I go, and touch up anything that slips with a second pass.  Either way takes about the same amount of time.  
    Despite many technicians' claims to the contrary, I've never experienced that temperament strips or that not tuning the entire unison as you go results in less stability. 
    Also, I can pitch raise WAY faster aurally and using felt strips than I could with just mutes or having to wait for lights (or other display) to stop spinning.  I tuned aurally for 25 years, then broke down and bought an ETD in hopes of saving time.  It does sometimes, but not by much -- maybe 5 or 10 minutes at the most.  I use it for the tuning, but do my final check and "tweaking" without it.  

    << you "old timers" who say your too old to change>>
                                  (That's "you're" -- you are)
   I'm not too old to change.  I try different sequences and methods from time to time, but end up coming back to what I find most efficient.  As with many shop procedures, picking up and setting down tools can add greatly to the amount of time required to complete a job.  Same with tuning -- pulling and inserting those mutes adds up.  
    I'm convinced that hammer technique -- ability to set the pin and make it stay -- is way more important than the sequence used in tuning or whether one uses felt strips or rubber mutes.  (This is after the pitch raise I'm talking about.)
    --David Nereson, RPT  

 

 
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