Another piano handyman +

[pianoman]

Hi Tom
I ran across an upright piano here in St. Louis where the action too was
shifted to the right to raise the pitch.  It raised all kinds of questions
like did the tone quality suffer even though the hammer was playing the
right note but pitched 1/2 step high, but not really?  When you start
thinking of the tonal repercussions it becomes quite interesting.
James Grebe
R.P.T. from St. Louis
pianoman@inlink.com
"Take me through the darkness to the break of the day"

----------
> From: Tom Cole <tcole@cruzio.com>
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Re: Another piano handyman
> Date: Tuesday, October 14, 1997 8:18 PM
> 
> I got a call from a man, an engineer, who bought an old upright piano
> which was way below pitch. He didn't care that it was painted green but
> wanted it tuned to standard pitch. While setting the temperament, I
> broke 4 strings and, after informing the owner of how the bill was
> beginning to mount up, we decided to go with tuning it a half step low
> after all.
> 
> He called me again several months later wanting it retuned. I returned
> to find that he had shifted the keyframe to the right sufficient to
> transpose everything up a half step. He even drilled the back end of the
> last key of each section to receive a heavy guage wire which was bent to
> the right to actuate the first sticker of the next section.
> 
> After I tuned it and put the case parts back on, you couldn't tell that
> it was "re-engineered" (as long as you didn't play A0 or C88).
> 
> Tom
> 
> Mike Erickson wrote:
> > 
> >   One of my customers (or a past owner) found another creative way to
> > fix his loose tuning pin problem. The piano resides in the small,
rustic
> > mountain community of Oracle, Arizona. I have only been at this piano
> > once, so far.  This very old piano had no apparent brand name (weird
> > looking agraffes). It had a cut down case modification with mirror
> > across the top. The tuning pin area was open wood (no plate covering).
> > 
> >   The fix, I am just guessing, went something like this:  While the
> > tuning pins remained in their existing loose holes, an enterprising
> > Do-it-yourselfer drilled completely NEW pin holes in the block, - - -
> > unfortunately NOT in a logical pattern, and then he somehow moved the
> > tuning pins with strings over to his NEW holes, leaving the original
> > holes empty.  This solution may have worked only a short while, if at
> > all, because after realizing that the new holes were too large and the
> > pins still loose, he had to again drill a SECOND ROUND of randomly
> > placed holes (probably with a smaller drill bit) and then moved ALL the
> > strings and pins over a second time... leaving about 440 empty holes in
> > the aftermath (many of the old holes he tidied up by filling with wood
> > dowel).
> > 
> >    When tuning, I must follow each string to find the corresponding
> > tuning pin - because there is no sequence.  If I ever have the pleasure
> > of tuning it again (all the pins are still very loose - even at 1/2
step
> > low)  I will surely bring my camera and tripod.
> > Mike Erickson, Tucson, AZ
> > 
> > .-
> 
> -- 
> Thomas A. Cole RPT
> Santa Cruz, CA
>