Strip mutes was . . Re: Moving from Uprights to Grands

[Erwinspiano@aol.com]

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
 
 Ric
    Frankly the idea that a good tuner can't get good  results when using a 
temp strip is Hogwash. It sound like your saying something  similar. 
  I've been using complete strip muting for 32 years & I beleive  the 
stability of my work speaks for itself. I know many others who do as well  & with the 
finest results you can imagine
  I will say that the material used for muting can have an enormous  impact 
on the stability. Rule no. 1....Do not use supply house temp  strips.
 I use the thick green action cloth for years . It's stripped to  about 1/2 
to 5/8 wide. I use the one that gets thinnest  from use in  the top treble ,the 
next most worn one in the capo section & the thickest  newest one in the 
middle & bass. Using this cloth spreads the strings to a  bare minimum with 
effeicient damping.
  The efficiency of the whole tuning system is also less tedious for  me than 
always moving hands & mutes ... but that's me.
  If using one mute works well for you then this is  great. It's the results 
that count. but enough of the myth that strip muting  can't give excellent 
results.
   Dale




Hi, Susan and Michael et al,
The whole business of strip muting for either the temperament octave or  even 
into the further reaches of the piano has always been controversial  here in 
UK.  Probably like Michael I was trained very  traditionally, to discard the 
strip mute quite early on and rely on  one's ear for laying the temperament 
with just two wedges.  It has  always been looked down upon in the profession 
here if a tuner still  has to use a temperament strip, almost suggesting that 
his/her ear is not  reliable enough to do without it.  The analogy being a baby's 
walking  frame I suppose!   Because  of this early influence I can  actually 
feel 'ashamed' if I resort to using  a strip or rubber  gang mute on a 
difficult piano. Do i need psychoanalysis?  However, I  could actually argue pretty 
stongly in favour of using them with very  small grands and uprights where 
inharmonicity is so pronounced that setting  an acceptable temperament can take 
more than one pass, and using this aid  would be quicker.  When this topic comes 
under discussion over here it  is generally argued that the temperament is 
not exactly the same when you  return to complete the unisons and that the whole 
excercise can be more time  consuming.
It would be interesting to know what proportion of tuners is 'mute  free'
Ric




 
 
Erwins Pianos  Restorations 
4721 Parker Rd.
Modesto, Ca 95357
209-577-8397
Rebuilt  Steinway , Mason &Hamlin  Sales
www.Erwinspiano.com

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/c5/57/22/cc/attachment.htm

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--