Strang call

[Greg Newell]

Hey folks,
    I went on a strange call tonight. A school teacher and his wife had
a run of the mill Acrosonic that needed some attention. The couple are
collectors and performers of such instruments as folk harp, autoharp,
mandolin, dulcimer and the like. The room the piano was in was
completely full of these instruments some of which were hand made and
some that were purchased. Interesting to say the least! I was quite
perplexed, however when they related the story of what the last tooner
did. They say that he took the action out and back to his shop because
it just wouldn't work all dirty like it was. He returned it with steamed
hammers and I think reshaped as well but did not bother to align them to
the strings. The lost motion was adjusted such that the hammers all had
varying blow distances, most on the rail but no margin for error and
quite a few off the rail creating a wild looking hammer line. All this
was easily corrected but what puzzled me the most was their relating how
the last tooner said that he had tuned the piano sharp! Now I didn't
give this much thought until I sat down and found after sampling quite a
few notes throughout the scale that it was approximately 35-40 cents
sharp on average. Now the customer had not had it tuned again  in over a
year for fear that they would get another one like the last guy. Could
any of you shed some light on why a piano might be tuned THAT sharp
intentionally? It seems to me that even if the piano were 150-200 cents
flat and the overpull stuck like glue where you put it it still wouldn't
account for it being that sharp by accident. I really don't get it! Is
there any kind of reason of benefit to doing this? It really sounded
quite shrill! As if an Acrosonic needed any help in that department. :>)
Well, chime away if you care to.

Greg
--
Greg Newell
Greg's Piano Forté
19270 Harlon Ave.
Lakewood, Ohio 44107
216-226-3791
mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net