Hello patrick, I've problems with my camera, so sending you pictures of my piano will be a bit complicated for the moment. but well, it is quite easy to describe. They are like every normal pins but thinner. The usual shape is a cylinder, with the top cut with four tilted flats. like if we intersected it with a very pointy pyramid. It's the same shape except that the outer diametre is 3/8", which is smaller than the usual size, (and a 1/4" square at the top). By the way, I finally have found the tuning lever maker (schaff), who said me that they knew that such smaller pins existed, but they don't support it. So, I've made a small adaptor that is more or less the size and the shape of the pin, and get hold in a 11mm hexagonal wrench. This is extremely unconfortable, and it took me all the night (till 8AM) to tune the whole piano and raise it a little (my first tuning ever :-D ) and when I went to bed, my hand and arm started to be awfully painfull. So the next step will be to make a socket that goes on the tuning lever, which will be a problem, since the screw is not a very common one, especially here in europe. the fact that the piano is old and not going to hold for long, is the first reason why I wanted to be able to learn tuning it by myself. I'm not rich enough to pay someone to tune it every month. by the way, having to tune frequently will train me, won't it ? Tuning didn't seem to difficult, Well... It took time, I had to find a few tricks to enhance my ear sensibility, but at had the feeling it was coming quite easily. The problem is that I don't know if I'm just sooo instinctively good that I find it easy, or just soooo bad that I can't hear how bad my tuning was... For my first tuning, I used kirnberger II temperament, and instead of reproducing the middle octave to the others, I worked by check all octaves by the same method. I don't know if it is something tuners usually do, but it worked much better than matching the octaves. I don't have a problem with the bass strings, which I can't discriminate very precisely. Is there any trick for that ? It may be possible that raising the piano to A440 will be a problem. I didn't dare to raise it too much, but I have the feeling that I could raise it more than I did. I was quite affraid in the treebles, but it seems (by plucking it) that the tension in the strings is not too hard. best regards, Philippe ----- Original Message ----- From: "PIANISSIMO PIANOFORTE S.L." <patrick@pianospianissimo.com> To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2006 12:38 PM Subject: Re: Tuning pins undersized, where can I find sockets for my lever ? Hello Philippe, The "problem" might be that the pins in the piano are (appart from smaller size) even a different shape from the ones we usually find in newer pianos than yours. If the frame is woodden, then your piano is sure VERY old. The pins might even be of oblong shape. (If you want to send a picture of the inside of the piano, i'm sure i can tell you). On the other hand, it might be difficult learning tuning, specially by yourself in such an old piano, since is not going to hold the tuning long enough, you are probably not going to be able to tune it to pitch (a440 fork), and i doubt the action is going to work well enough... but anyway, i shouldn't assume anything until i see the piano :) With regards to your tuning lever, it is a professional model, so its a very good choice you've done there. Regards, Patrick > Hello, > > I live in Brussels and I got a very old piano with a wooden frame, and I'd > like to use it to learn tuning by myself, and why not becoming someday a > professional tuner. (I'm quite tired of my previous job...) So... It seems > that there is only one shop in brussels that could help me, but they are > soooo helping, that each time I visit them I decide that it will be the > last time. They never did anything else that trying to implicitly > discourage me, and I have the feeling that they just want to protect their > position of monopoly on Brussels. So I'm trying to find every information > I can on the net and in books. > > Since they were soooo cooperative, I've bought on the net, a tuning kit > including a "Hale Pro Extension Tuning Hammer" (it seems to be more a > tuning lever than a tuning hammer but... ok. Here are pictures of the > stuff : http://home.flash.net/~schteev/prokit8.jpg > http://home.flash.net/~schteev/ext1.jpg > > This material was presented as being THE professional reference for > tuners, and it seemed true, since it matches quite closely with the > drawing in the book from Arthur A. Reblitz; including the name "Hale" on > it... > > I bought it with two aditionnal sockets, and none of them match with my > piano. The pins on my piano are only 1/4" on the cylindric part, and 4.5mm > at the top. even the smallest tip (#1) is floating nearly freely around > it. The seller has no idea on how to help me solve my problem. Do you have > any idea where / how I could find a socket small enough for my piano ? > > thank you, > > Philippe Errembault Patrick Hinves Ballesta Afinador/Técnico 610442371 PIANISSIMO PIANOFORTE S.L. _______________________________________________ Pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
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