Les Smith wrote: > All this talk about inventing a device to tune pianos when interfaced > with a computer misses the obvious answer. George Steck spent the last > years of his life trying to invent a piano that would stand in tune in- > definitely. Unfortunately, he died before coming upon the solution to > the problem that I have. Simply tune the piano once and then WELD the > pins to the plate! Those babies will surely never slip again. Of course, > that means that we're all going to have to add a welding torch to our > tool kits, but at least it will be tax deductible. As far as I know this > idea has not YET been patented, but as I reported here a couple of years > ago, I HAVE seen piano where this was actually done! > > Les Smith > lessmith@buffnet.net Les, Actually, this has been tried. Many years ago, shortly after my brother had learned to tune pianos, he tuned one for a farmer in North Dakota. (We spent a few of our growing up years there.) Darrell explained that since the piano hadn't been tuned for years, and since the tuning pins were very loose and actually on the verge of slipping, the piano would have to be tuned again in a short time and would also need some additional work. Well, the next time he was in the area he called and, sure enough, the piano needed some work--though not what he expected. The man explained that the piano did not need tuning, but did need to have some strings replaced. When he got to the piano he found that the man had welded each tuning pin to the plate. Needless to say, there were some problems... Del
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