Steinway "S"?

[Ken Burton]

            Dale,

            You have been given lots of good information about the Steinway
and about possible techniques for tuning them. I have done some study on
tuning techniques and have written a book, DIFFERENT STROKES describing what
I have learned.
            Tuning techniques never seem to become easy. Every piano is
different and you have to be constantly changing and experimenting.
Different angles of hammer placement can help, different ways to pull and
push can bring success. Different heads and tips on the tuning hammer can
help. Some help comes from the Wonderwand or the impact hammer, depending on
whether it works for you.
            However, even though I have been tuning for over 30 years, I
still come to some pianos that fight me and increase my tuning time to over
two hours.
            Steinway uprights share a problem with Heintzman uprights and
Mason and Risch pianos--they have a v-bar or capo system that tends to
produce severe friction as the wire tries to move. I call them "Type C"
pianos because the tuning pin often moves before the pitch changes.
            One technique which has not been mentioned, often seems to help.
Here it is:  turn the pin until the pitch starts to rise but stop just
before it comes up to the desired mark. Then, "flip" the hammer handle
clockwise to bump the tuning pin. This will often cause the string to move
through the friction but will not turn the pin any further so that the
equalization may be correct.
            I am working on an electric impact hammer which should help this
situation but work is very slow since I am depending on others who don't
have much time to put into it.
            If I can help you any further, please let me know.

                        Ken Burton "Doctor Piano" Calgary Alberta
                                   kwburton@cadvision.com
-----Original Message-----
From: jennfee@ibm.net <jennfee@ibm.net>
To: pianotech@ptg.org <pianotech@ptg.org>
Date: Thursday, February 04, 1999 10:05 PM
Subject: Steinway "S"?


>Thanks for the responses.
>I must confess that I may have given some misleading information.
>The piano in question is an upright, not a grand.
>The owner rebuilt the reproducing mechanism, did a pretty good
>regulating job, and had tuned it himself. As he also had several other
>pianos on the go, I assumed thet he knew what he was talking about when
>he said it was an "S".  I do know that the serial # puts the piano at
>1920.
>As for the condition - Tuning pins neither jumpy nor loose, no rust on
>the strings(I assume it was restrung a few years back), coils were
>perfect!, I spent some time seating strings at termination points, etc..
>I've heard other technicians say that Steinway uprights are difficult to
>tune. In light of this new info. as stated above, any new
>insights/techniques for getting the strings and pins to stay where I
>want them to would be greatly appreciated.
>My apologies if I seem to be beating a dead horse.
>
>Thanks again,
>
>Dale Davidson
>