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<DIV>In 1972, the university Faculty of Music I worked for bought a number
of these, and within a few years each and every one of them had the pinblock
separate in the bass. I am puzzled because nobody else seems to have had this
experience, possibly because of changes to more recent models. The design
deficiences were so obvious as to make one wonder what kind of tinkeres were
responsible. Overall, these were truly dismal examples of the piano makers'
art.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Ted Sambell</DIV>
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style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=harvey.pianotech@gmail.com
href="mailto:harvey.pianotech@gmail.com">Jim Harvey</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=caut@ptg.org
href="mailto:caut@ptg.org">College and University Technicians</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, August 16, 2007 2:08
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [CAUT] Steinway Upright
tuning</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Congrats on your RPT status, Joe.<BR><BR>No doubt everyone on
this list has a minimum of one story about these units. I know several from
various colleagues, but will only share mine at the moment.<BR><BR>The late
George Defebaugh once asked me about my tuning abilities; iow, whether I felt
confident and comfortable with tuning. I admitted that generally, yes, I felt
I had reached a certain plateau in my skills for the time I'd been in the
business. I then thought for a moment, and confessed that there was one piano
where I didn't like the results (tuners are often their own worst critics),
and figured that since it was the last call of the day, I must either be
fatigued or was just doing something wrong. That was the only piano that I
intentionally didn't charge for the tuning. I felt I didn't deserve to be
paid. [Free tunings and getting paid are for another day.] Guess what piano it
was? <BR><BR>When George heard this, he chuckled and said, "In that case,
don't worry about it -- nobody can tune those to any degree of satisfaction".
He also advised me to always charge for my work!<BR><BR>In keeping with the
other responses so far, I was an RPT at the time (or whatever we were known as
that week), tune verticals left-handed, and observe Lew Herwig's "bottom of
the hole" method for tuning verticals. I also knew about "flag-poling", bridge
roll, and other phenomena. The combination of knowing about and/practicing
certain methods didn't help. Funny thing is, -as- I was tuning, my tests and
checks were working out. The finished product was dog--meat. <BR><BR>I feel
that today I could do... better, but in the 30-plus years since the above
scenario, I've never had the [opportunity] to find out. Sometimes life cuts
you a break.<BR><BR>If there's any real help in this reply, it's to not let
the anomalies of one piano/scale get to you, especially to the point of
discouraging your continued growth and learning curve. <BR><BR>Okay, one more
thrid-person story. You took a break -- this guy spent four hours, then came
back the next day before giving up. We're not only our own worst critics,
sometimes we're our own worst enemies!<BR><BR><BR>
<DIV><SPAN class=gmail_quote>On 8/15/07, <B class=gmail_sendername>Joe
Wiencek</B> <<A
href="mailto:jwpiano@earthlink.net">jwpiano@earthlink.net</A>>
wrote:</SPAN>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">List,<BR>I'm
a recent RPT and caut. Today I was forced to take a break
while<BR>tuning a Steinway Model 45 piano due to the squirminess of the
pitch.<BR>Can anyone suggest a plan of attack on these particular (or any
<BR>Steinway upright) that makes for an efficient tuning
session?<BR>Thanks,<BR>Joe<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR>-- <BR>Jim Harvey,
RPT<BR><<A
href="mailto:harvey.pianotech@gmail.com">harvey.pianotech@gmail.com</A>><BR><<A
href="http://www.harveypiano.com">www.harveypiano.com</A>>
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