[CAUT] Assorted Queries

[Richard Brekne]

The issue of string seating is as hot as any.  I would suggest that if 
you in the course of your seating procedures create a grooves in the 
bridge that ultimately reduce the bridge pins ability to hold the 
strings clamped firmly to the entire surface of the bridge... then you 
should re-evaluate your procedure.  You may gain some short term 
benefit... but in the end you are causing a larger problem with falsness 
then you started with.

Bostons seem to me to take a bit of time to settle in.  But I do not 
experience them as any more or less stable then any other piano.  
Unstableness in tuning is always one or both of two things.  Unstable 
climate and/or inadequate tuning hammer technique.  This last is a 
classic that just about all of us at some time or another has had 
difficulty facing.  One of the most valuable uses for the ETD is to 
demonstrate our inadequacies thus and to help us improve greatly on our 
technique.

Damper noise is often caused by wedged dampers too deep in their 
unisons.  Appropriate clipping is the cure and you need to be good at it.

Cheers
RicB


    Hi List,

    Here is my laundry list of small technical questions I've meant to ask:

    1)  String Seating - A few weeks back I received my "false beat
    reducer" from Schaff. I had read piles of literature on proper
    string termination at the bridge... I am still mystified by
    massiness/spongyness... and had never achieved noticeable results
    from applying side or downward leverage with a driver blade or wood
    dowel. Not so with the false beat reducer... Right away I was
    settling those false beats and it was/is glorious, I had come to
    think my unisons were unclean due to tuning inadequacies (though why
    should single string beats be my fault?), and this has given me a
    whole new perspective. My method is to start at the hitch pin as
    recommended in the Fern Henry article of the Technical Exam source
    book, and work to the tuning pin (rear duplex, duplex bridge pin,
    speaking bridge pin, agraffe or V bar (string hook), front duplex).
    She recommends a brass dowel and a hammer. I had never got the
    results from striking that I get from pressing. I try
     not to move more than an inch from the bridge pin when pressing,
    and I apply a good deal of downward pressure (never side pressure
    since I seem to resonate with the argument that if the string is as
    down against the bridge as it can be it must be equally against the
    pin, and too much side pressure just compromises the pins stability
    without increasing termination).
    Sometimes a string will be unaffected by even the most zealous of
    seating, but for the most part I can't believe the results. I now
    take out the beat reducer with my mutes for every tuning, and use it
    at least a few times on every tuning. It makes for cleaner unisons,
    octaves, and I feel better walking out of a tuning.... I am cautious
    of being overly zealous however, especially on the concert
    instruments I service. How much danger is there of warping the
    string in the speaking length? How often do you all seat strings?
    Every tuning? If a tuning isn't clean until a little seating is
    performed why does seating  seem always to be placed in the
    "voicing" category instead of being made a big integral part of
    tuning 101?

    (Digression - the tip in this month's journal about placing wedge mutes
    in such a manner as to move the muted string away from the hammer (up
    in grands, down in uprights) has also been a great eye opener for me,
    the results are subtle but undeniable and have helped me quickly switch
    between level strings and unlevel strings so as to better identify
    which tuning problems are string leveling related)

    2)  Damper Felt Noise- When the spanking new dampers lift with
    sustain pedal on a few grands the great sponginess seems to rub the
    strings as they lift quite noisily to the point of distraction. Does
    anyone know a remedy that won't compromise damper function? Why is
    this sound more prevalent in certain instances than others?

    3)  Steinway Bostons - The college purchased a few new Boston baby
    grands 3 years ago and they are all very unstable. Even the brand
    new loaner Kawais hang on longer than these guys. I have seated
    strings some but could do more. Has anyone experienced instability
    problems with recent Boston babygrands?


    thanks!

    Greg Arnold
    Whitman College
    www.welltemperedtuning.com