Satisfying musicians

[Les Smith]

Hi, Bill.

A couple of thoughts here, the first being that neither one of these
pianos are what I'd classify as "musician's instruments". The first
is, well, a U1 and the second a 30 year old EAST-German-made upright.
I don't think you need be intimidated by either the instruments, or the
owners.

The "U1". Assuming that the probkem is with the leftmost string, and
that when you seated it on the bridge you also made sure that the bridge
pins themselves weren't loose and contributing to the "wildness" of the
string, did you try needling the left side of the hammer which impacts
the string, to see if that might not minimize the problem?

Pinao #2. You said that the dampers are not" following the strings". Are
you sure that the problem lies with the damper lifter-rod amd not the
damper regulation itself? In other words, could it be that damper lift
from the key is not properly regulated? When you press down a key are the
dampers lifting immediately? Could the damper levers be resting on the
spoons, themselves and therefore not fully seating on the strings? Com-
pounding the problem, could the capstans also be set too high? Lots of
possibilities here. Also you might take a look at the waste ends of the
strings between bridge and hitch-pin. Are they muted or open? Sometimes
these segments, if un-muted, can vibrate loud enough sympathetically that
it makes it appear that the problem is with the dampers, when it's not.
Some stringing braid woven between the waste ends might help. One often
sees this problem on older Steinway uprights. Remember you're dealing with
a 30 year-old East-German-made upright here, not a Schimmel!

Les Smith
lessmith@buffnet.net

On Wed, 9 Apr 1997 Maxpiano@aol.com wrote:

> 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
>