Steinway upright tuning

[Newton Hunt]

On S&S uprights the tuning pins flag pole because of the lack of support
from the bottom of the coil to the pinblock material.  The piano would
be infinitely more tunable with plate bushings but since that is not an
option then we have to deal with the piano as it is.  Flag poling is
caused by stressing the pin by the tuning hammer and the direction of
the stresses.

There are only two easy and stable ways to tune an S&S upright.

1.   The use of an impact tuning hammer and supporting most of it's
weight by the hand puts the least amount of deformation stress on the
pin so it is neither bend nor twisted in the block.  Extremely stable
and easy tuning.  

2.    Keep the tuning hammer in the 10:00 o'clock position so that the
stress is more horizontal than vertical.  It would be better at 9:00
o'clock but most of us are right handed tuners so this is not a
comfortable option.

Option 2 is a pain in the back but it does work.

There is a formula for calculating the amount of flag poling but I don't
remember how it went.

		Newton