Tuning Stabilty Question

[hubert liverman]

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Good reply!

If I May..

I will be tuning the concert piano for the 75'th reunion of the Auburn =
Knights Orchestra. The rental piano will be at the site on the 26'th or =
27'th. I will check in early on the 28'th and find out what we have and =
set it up..:-) Starting at 1PM it will go through 8 hours of =
rehearsal/play time by some heavy NYC,LA,and Regional Players. On the =
29'th it will go through 6 hours of R/H time and 4 hours+ of digitally =
recorded concerts...4 era bands. On the 30'th there is only 4 hours R/H =
time and another 4 era band concerts. Urr..Uh..after hours the jazz =
heads play 'till dawn. I have cut my playing down to only one band. ( I =
hold the record for playing on all 20'th Century bands,at one time or =
another,as well as the most at one reunion..5). It is an impossible task =
with the scheduling,daily set ups by the dear ladies who collect the =
gate, and old friends.Not to mention the inevitable people who want to =
know everything 'they' want to know about pianos!
I tune the piano twice daily to the best of my ability,and then enjoy my =
friends...once in awhile the late night crew lets me join in and play a =
tune or two on my bass trombone (in the low regester) to check my =
improvements..:-) I get my room and dues comped for this..:-(  ?
See auburnknights.com   if you wish

Hubert
Opelika







  ----- Original Message -----=20
  To: pianotech@ptg.org=20
  Sent: Monday, July 04, 2005 2:00 PM
  Subject: RE: Tuning Stabilty Question


  Yes. =20

  David Ilvedson






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-----
  Original message
  From: Robert Finley=20
  To:=20
  Received: Mon, 4 Jul 2005 13:26:19 -0400
  Subject: Tuning Stabilty Question


  I would like to ask your opinion about piano tuning stability. Last =
weekend we finished our international piano competition in Boston. It =
began on Wednesday June 22nd. I was the director of the competition and =
had a lot of administrative work to do.

  A couple of weekends before the competition I made several visits to =
the college and tuned four of the practice pianos, because last time in =
2003 they were badly out of tune. They hadn't been tuned since January, =
the beginning of the semester, and I thought I would save our =
organization some money.=20

  The pianos were very old (looked as if they were from the early =
1900s), and consisted of two Steinway Bs, a Steinway A, and  a Baldwin =
Hamilton Studio console.  They didn't seem to have been looked after =
very well. There were paper clips, pins, dust and other debris inside. =
Some of the tuning pins were rather loose. The music stand on a Steinway =
B was broken and in terrible shape.=20

  I used the SAT III to  to tune them. I applied strong blows to =
equalize the tension in the strings, and lighter listening blows to =
check the resultant tuning. When I finished each piano, there was a very =
big improvement, and I could have given a recital on each of them. The =
notes had a bell like clarity, although the tone of the Baldwin upright =
was rather mediocre.=20

  During the competition, the practice pianos were in use from 8 am =
until 11 pm each day by contestants. They practiced such things as the =
Prokofiev Toccata, Rachmaninoff Etudes, Liszt etc, and they began to go =
out of tune. The air conditioning in the building cycled on and off =
during the night and day. They were in quite out of tune by the end of =
the competition.=20

  My question is, would you typically expect pianos to go out of tune =
under these circumstances or should they have held their tuning better? =
I know it is difficult to say without seeing the pianos, but I just =
wondered what your opinion might be.  I'm not sure what else I could =
have done to make the pianos hold their tuning longer. I couldn't go in =
to re-tune them because they were constantly in use by the contestants =
from morning to late at night. I was also overloaded with work, running =
the competition, so I wouldn't have had the time anyway.=20

  Thanks for your thoughts and a happy July 4th.=20

  Robert Finley
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