etd tunings

[Kevin E. Ramsey]

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Kevin E. Ramsey
ramsey@extremezone.com
  On the other side of the coin, I tuned a brand new(I unpacked it, =
too...),=20
  Chinese built Samick 42" piano about a month ago.  This past week, I =
went=20
  into the same store to do a couple of floor tunings.  The manager led =
me over=20
  to a piano, a 42" Samick.  "Does this sound tuned to you?" he asked.  =
He=20
  played a few chords, then some octaves.  Sounded pretty bad, most of =
the=20
  mid-range was at least 10 cents flat, the treble flatter, the bass not =
quite=20
  so bad.  He opened the lid, pointed at the orange sticker(hey, they =
asked me=20
  to do it!) with my initials and the date on it, and said "you tuned it =
about=20
  a month ago."  Dirty trick!  Embarassing, nonetheless.  I pointed out =
that,=20
  in my realm of experience, these pianos are extremely unstable and =
that they=20
  need to be pitch-raised/dropped then fine tuned as soon as they are =
unpacked=20
  and put on the floor.

  Given the stability of the tunings I put on a Charles Walter grand and =
many=20
  other pianos in the same store, I have to say that it is a matter of=20
  climatizing: from being Asian-built and coming to the US, as well as =
from the=20
  change of seasons in CA from wet and cool when I first tuned it, to =
warm and=20
  dry when I checked the piano.  Like Terry, I've tuned many older =
American=20
  pianos that have been remarkably close to pitch after a 10 year tuning =

  hiatus.  Just proves that newer isn't better. =20

  Dave Stahl



      Where I come from, taking a piano from Asia out of a box and =
tuning it means that it's in tune, for the moment...... It's still a =
"raw" piano, with no real settling or stabilizing. My answer would have =
been "What did you expect?" The piano's going to change big-time for a =
while. Heck, we started handling Pearl Rivers down here; I had to do one =
the other day ( No notes of sympathy necessary ) and all the keys were =
cockeyed. They weren't when they took it out of the box,,,, but a couple =
of weeks later,,,,, Whoa! I looked at those keys too, they had three =
ply's top to bottom. What I'm thinking is that they had this laminated =
board as a key blank, the inner ply wasn't quite dry, and when they cut =
it into keys it warped. Only took me half an hour or so, but really; If =
that big a change is going to happen to the keys, what do you think is =
happening to the rest of the piano?=20
      BTW, I really had to laugh when I saw a few tissue paper punchings =
in there.........
     =20

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