[CAUT] False Beats and George Winston

[Tim Geinert]

Bill,
In conjunction with the massaging.... I tap the strings sideways in 
situations like this all the time and have not broken a string.  I would do 
that and the massaging before trying the emery cloth, as that would be a 
pain on only one unison by itself.  If the massage and the sideways don't 
help, then shoeshining the capo is probably worth the trouble.
tim g

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tim Coates" <tcoates1 at sio.midco.net>
To: "College and University Technicians" <caut at ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, March 16, 2007 5:22 AM
Subject: Re: [CAUT] False Beats and George Winston


> Bill,
>
> Try massaging the strings with a very small brass rod that has a  small 
> groove cut in it.   Massage both the speaking and non speaking  segments 
> right up the bridge pins.  Don't use a heavy touch.
>
> Tim Coates
>
>
> On Mar 15, 2007, at 2:23 PM, maxpiano wrote:
>
>> In a performance/theater venue, I service a Yamaha CFIII that has  some 
>> fast false beat issues on 2-3 keys in the top octave and very  few false 
>> beats in the rest of the piano.  I am told this was the  piano Andre Watt 
>> used during his (brief?) departure from the  Steinway Artist fold some 15 
>> years ago. Nothing I have tried so far  on D#7 and F7 has worked, such as 
>> tapping the bridge pins.  The  beats do not respond to pushing against 
>> the bridge pins with a  screwdriver, so I am assuming it is not an issue 
>> of loose bridge pins.
>>
>> George Winston is to be there a week from tomorrow.  This will be  about 
>> the fourth time I have tuned this piano for his concerts.  He  complains 
>> about unisons in the treble, and doesn't seem to know how  to sort out 
>> the difference between bad unisons and false beats.  I  get the 
>> impression he is not open to the suggestion that false  beats are par for 
>> the course up there, and he wants all the focus  he can get at the top. 
>> He has the habit of carrying a bunch of  rubber mutes with him and laying 
>> them next to the tuning pins  wherever he detects a bad unison, both 
>> before the concert after he  has practiced, and during the show for 
>> touch-up at intermission.   Interesting, at intermission there may be 
>> some hairy unisons in the  tenor/low treble with no mutes laid down, but 
>> a proliferation of  them by the top octave!
>>
>> I am wondering if it would help, when I go to prepare the piano a  week 
>> from today, a day ahead of the concert (I'll be touching it up  the 
>> afternoon of the concert) if I would go prepared with emery  cloth strips 
>> to shoeshine the capo bar on the affected notes.  I  trust I could get 
>> the strings settled down again after the  loosening.  I have also thought 
>> of Roger Jolly's suggestion of  taking the rear end of a coil lifter tool 
>> (the 3 notches for  aligning strings), setting it onto the 3 strings of a 
>> unison and  driving it sideways and back, but I don't want to risk 
>> breaking  strings.
>>
>> Any advice or other suggestions for quieting the false beats in the  top 
>> octave?
>>
>> Bill Maxim, RPT
>> Columbia, SC