[CAUT] Yamaha verticals

[Ron Nossaman]

Tuning new Yamaha verticals reminds me more every year of 
1098s. The low counter bearing angle and very tight pins that 
you have to crank quite a ways before the bottom moves, makes 
for interesting tuning. The tuning pin bushings do help, as do 
a couple of yearly cycles through the typical 70%+ to 30%- 
institutional humidity swings. In homes with good humidity 
control, they'll probably be like this forever!

I tuned a T116 yesterday, and I've got to ask. Why did Yamaha 
design something with a forty pound combination front and 
fallboard and not give us a block on the top back side of the 
front board to use as a secure handle to lift the thing out? 
The P22s have the block the lock is mounted in up there, and 
it's a perfect handle, but the T116 isn't as accommodating. If 
you can't manage to weasel a few fingertips under the name 
board felt in front (never mind finding the balance point), 
that leaves the hinged fallboard strip to use as a handle (and 
again finding the balance point). I don't like that. It's too 
much weight to put on those hinges, and the strip doesn't come 
square to the fallboard. It angles out some, which does little 
for security of grip. Folks with wet sticky hands won't be 
overly endangered, but hands as dry as mine typically are 
offer no traction on polished polyester surfaces, so it's just 
a matter of time before the tuning fee goes back into a 
polyester repair job. Maybe I'll try to find a couple of very 
large tree frogs I could stick on and use as temporary handles.

How do you dry handed 140 pounders out there get into these 
things without generating polyester debris fields?

Ron N