Long Distance Tuning Blues, and a voicing question

[Mike Spalding]

And then there are the days you do it to yourself.

Yesterday I had an 8am appointment to reinstall the shaped/cleaned/lubed
console action (Yamaha P-22, 1984)  and do some reg&voice.  At 7:30 am made
the bad decision to not fire up the snowblower (it's only 4-6 inches, and
I've got front wheel drive and good tread).  Logged 0.7 miles on the
odometer sliding up and down a 30 foot slope in my driveway, polishing the
wet snow into a hockey-rink quality glazing.  Called the customer to tell
her I would be late (got her answering machine, 'cause she was outside
shoveling her driveway for me).  Finally spent 10 minutes with the
snowblower to clear a new path off to the side of the ice, and was on the
road.

Since I was just there last week to pick up the action, I didn't need to
consult my customer database for the address.  But when a stranger came to
the door, I quickly retreated to my car and drove next door to the correct
address. (The good news is, if I'd been on time I would gotten that poor
lady out of bed!)

Now, finally, a technical question:  The impetus for this job was that she
plays duets with another of my clients, so it's important that the entire
keyboard have a good range of dynamics and tone quality.  They both felt
that the Killer Octave was really wimpy and couldn't stand up to the rest of
the piano.  Did some regulating and test voicing on A6 (filed, pounded,
shoulder-needled), we all agreed there was noticeable improvement, so
proceeded with the complete action "recondition".  By the end of yesterday,
had good even power up through A6, but there was still a group of notes
A#6-D7 that would not sustain.  Had done pluck-test before without noticing
any problems, but with the hammer sound to guide me, I now noticed that
these 4 notes had noticeably less pluck-sustain than their neighbors both
above and below.  Tapped bridge pins, dripped a little CA on the bridge
pins, put a little Acetone-Keytop on the crowns.  It's better, but it's not
right.  Given that this is an area of compromise, and we're probably
compensating for a belly problem, are there any vociing techniques that will
help me blend this area more effectively?  So far, I have resisted the
temptation to voice down the rest of the piano to match these 4 notes.

thanks for wading through this  tale, and any advice you can offer would be
much appreciated

Mike Spalding, RPT



----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Nossaman" <RNossaman@cox.net>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2003 7:38 AM
Subject: Re: Long Distance Tuning Blues



>To make it all just a bit more frustrating, my first service call out
>there found no one home! As she had been a good local client, I did not
>charge her for the trip. Now I have driven out there four times for a
>tuning ($80) and some action work ($90).

Sounds familiar. Yesterday, I had three out of town, for a church. As
scheduled, I showed up at 8:30 at the new church to do the first two. No
one there. Building locked up tight. I hung around for about 15 minutes and
went to plan B. Since no one was going to be at the old church until 10:30,
it seemed likely that was the place to start. Sure enough, someone was
there to let me in and I tuned the piano in the 56° sanctuary. Back at the
new church, a half dozen cars had showed up since 8:45, so I got in there
too. Tuned the sanctuary grand and choir room studio, both with
Dampp-Chasers with low water lights blinking furiously (naturally). I
submitted the bill, notified the office denizen of the need for water, and
left. Got home at noon and spent the afternoon in the shop. Some days you
get lucky, some days not.


>Oh well. Much worse things happen in this world.
>
>Terry Farrell

Yea, you might have to get a real job (shudder).

Ron N

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