Tuning without a click...

[Ron Nossaman]

At 04:33 PM 6/28/98 EDT, you wrote:
>Group,
>
>I have not posted to the group for some time.  I will try and post only when I
>have something to add that hasn't been written about.
>
>I tune a Mason & Hamlin from, I believe, the Falcone years. (7 years old or
>so)
>
>The piano is a hard one to tune in that the pin block is spongy and doesn't
>feel as if the pin moves.  No click, no snap, no definite feel.  The piano
>sounds like a powerhouse.  When it is serviced it sounds great but I hate to
>tune it because it responds so different than any other piano I tune.  It is a
>7 foot BB and it is in a large Baptist church and is played a lot but I want
>to hear from any of you that may have some technique that may get me
>through... I get there, but I feel it takes to long and it is a struggle not a
>joy.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Ed Tomlinson
>Vancouver Wa
>
>

Hi Ed, I tune an older BB at one of my colleges. The block in this one is
(sort of) ok, but the string bearing angles through the capo are close to 45
degrees. I have to move the pin a LONG way before the pitch changes, either
down or up. There isn't any major problem with snap, ping, and zing in this
one, just the disconcerting lag time between the action and the result when
tuning. I'm sure the Mars Rover operator knows the feeling well. Tuning
stability on this piano is out the window because I have no way of
determining when all the string segments tensions are equalized, other than
'best guess'. No, that's not entirely right either. Nearly every time I tune
this thing, a string pops and all the segments involved are temporarily
under equal tension... zero. I don't know if the more recent incarnations of
this model have the same 'feature' or not. Sound familiar? I don't know any
way around it, short of re-stringing and re-engineering the plate as
necessary to make those deflection angles more nearly sensible. This one is
on my list, probably next summer, for an overhaul, with appropriate
modifications. 

 
 Ron