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

[David Ilvedson]

Temp strip or not, any change of 3 or 4 cents or should involve 2 passes.

David Ilvedson




----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: Susan Kline <skline@peak.org>
To: Pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org>
Received: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 10:47:16 -0700
Subject: Re: Strip mutes  was  . . Re: Moving from Uprights to Grands


>At 10:27 AM 7/21/2005 -0400, Ric wrote:
>>'is the muted temperament exactly the same when you return to complete the 
>>unisons'?

>That is a simple enough question: it depends on how far out the piano was 
>to begin with, and also on how good your hammer technique was when tuning 
>the first string. But I don't think this is the right question. The 
>question I would ask is, "how much does the temperament change as the side 
>strings are tuned?" If the pitch has been raised, the answer, of course, is 
>"quite a bit."

>Most of the time, unless the piano was very close to begin with, I just do 
>two quick passes.

>The strip has one advantage: when you return and tune the side strings you 
>get a very good sense of exactly how far and in which direction you had to 
>change the pitch.

>If you tune each unison as you go (just one or two wedges) you depend on 
>your tuning stability throughout. Unless you tune very stable unisons 
>quickly, it's going to be very hard for you to do a decent temperament. I 
>suppose this is why tuners in the UK (and a few here) look down on those 
>who use a strip mute. Ric even said "has to use a temperament strip."

>I don't HAVE to use a strip mute -- I _can_ tune just fine without one. I 
>find it _convenient_ to use a strip mute, and I feel that doing two fast 
>passes with a strip mute gives me better stability than doing one slow pass 
>with wedges only.

>The next question is for those who tune with only wedges: "how far does the 
>pitch change as you proceed with the tuning?" Only those who use a machine 
>know for sure. From my experience with the middle treble, which usually is 
>the least stable part of a piano, and which I don't strip mute, I would say 
>that the pitch changes less than if you wait to tune the side strings, but 
>still, it changes appreciably unless it was very close to begin with.

>I just do two passes. If the second pass requires quite a bit of tuning, I 
>do three passes. That usually settles whatever needs settling. If I put the 
>strip back in for the second pass, and almost nothing needs to be changed 
>at all, I can be confident that the first pass was sufficient. Checking 
>takes very little time.

>Best to all, on both sides of the water

>Susan Kline 

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