At 09:59 AM 4/8/97 -0500, you wrote: >>On the initial pitch raise do you break the tuning pin flat first before >>you go up in pitch? This simple procedure reduced my string breakage on >>pitch raises by about 80%... >> >>Warren D. Fisher > >Dear List, > >Thank you Warren, for mentioning this procedure, as it has stirred memories. > >I have heard this method mentioned many times in my years of tuning pianos, >tuning the pin flat before going up in pitch as a means of reducing string >breakage. I was wondering if any others also have personal experience or >knowledge concerning this procedure as really being beneficial, or is this >possibly one of those proverbial "wives' tales" handed down through the >ages. Don't have a clue myself. > >Sincerely, > >Keith A. McGavern Hi, Keith -- I second Les. Picture what is happening. The string has just lain there, maybe for a decade or more, bent at the bearings, maybe making a tiny spot of rust at the contact point -- almost glued there. If you start by raising the pitch, the string may drag at the contact point, and the tension in the top length goes up, before you ever hear a change in pitch. If you start by going down, the tension in the top length becomes less instead, until the difference in tension between the top length and the speaking length breaks through any stuckness at the bearings. At this point, the string is bending in a new place, and the old bend _gradually_ straightens out. Sometimes on a pitch raise you can _feel_ the difference in resistance when the old bend recrosses the bearing. A small length of wire slides across the bearings before the raised pitch puts strain on the top length. I can imagine it polishing the contact point, before the kink hits it, though I'm guessing. Also, by knocking every note flat as a first move, one is treating all strings uniformly, which I think helps stability later. The trick is to move them flat by the tiniest possible amount, also for stability. Letting them down a half tone will make more work stabilizing them later. By the way, I used this technique on the first piano I ever tuned for a customer, which was a perfect fourth flat. I brought it up by semitones, feeling new and tentative, and broke nothing, then or at subsequent tunings. I did it a lot sloppier then, of course, and took longer. Susan Kline skline@proaxis.com P.O. Box 1651, Philomath, OR 97370 "Warning: Whimsical when bored."
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