Satisfying musicians

[Maxpiano@aol.com]

List -

I state in my phone book advertising that I have been satisfying
discriminating musicians for over 40 years.  (If anyone ever asks me to back
that up, I am prepared to relate that I tuned the piano for my own senior
recital as a music student in 1957 -- the college technician chose that time
to take off on vacation.  I was satisfied with my own work)

Now 40 years later, I am experiencing some difficulty satisfying two new
customers, both music teachers.  Reasonably discriminating (or form your own
judgement below).

The first has a recent Yamaha U1 and called me back to eliminate what she
called a "twang" on B5.  I had heard nothing on tuning that note, but had to
agree on careful listening that there was a very slight "rough" edge to it.
 Holding fingers on the segment between tuning pin and upper bearing point
made no difference.  I seated the string at the bridge.  No change.  Pulled
the piano out from the wall.  The board seemed tight all over;  scraped for
possible glue from joint of board and liner, and tightened all the sound
board buttons.  No change in sound.  The "rough edge" was so slight I could
not always be sure I was hearing it, but she claimed it was there.  Seems
more obvious with the cabinet assembled than when open for tuning.

I tend not to suspect the teacher's ear, as she is a recent byu graduate (any
opinion on that, Vince?) apparently in her 20's, ethnic asian but I assume
American-born, no language barrier.  I did notice on tuning the left string
that it was a bit wild and hard to get a good unison.  Any ideas?

The other teacher represents a language barrier - ethnic Greek, born in
Russia and in this country about 3 years, teaching in a local (SC)
university.  Heavy accent, moderate difficulty in communicating.  Her
personal piano is a Roenisch (Leipzig) ca. 50-inch upright about 30 years
old.  She called to have a damping problem corrected.  Claimed it had just
started doing that, and it bothered the music lessons she was giving at home.


By the time I could schedule an appointment, her father (who spoke no
English) had messed with 3-4 tenor dampers and she claimed the problem was
solved.  However, what I found was a piano that had no helper- or
dummy-damper, and many dampers were not following the strings (the damper
rail was not returning to its rest position).  I fashioned a mediocre
substitute from a damper lever I had in the car,  cared for a massive squeak
in the trapwork (which she seemed unaware of), and tuned the piano (raised it
about 50 cents).

Her response was that now other tenor notes were hanging on.  What she was
hearing, I showed her (tried to), was that the bass strings were responding
slightly (held my hand on them while playing tenor notes); It was an amount
that I considered normal, if a bit on the high side.  The basement room where
the piano was located was quite live, which I think contributed to the
awareness.

Now she calls that the problem is back.  In the mean time, I have located a
real dummy damper with a stiff spring, and I am going in a few days.  I have
been checking the bleed-through from the bass in other pianos I have been
tuning.  I am sure she will not spring for a bass damper redesign, and I am
unsure if that will help much.  How can I convince her that it is in the
range of normal, and that focusing the tone by tuning has brought it to her
attention?

Please forgive the long post.

Bill Maxim, RPT