tuning anomaly

[Gene Nelson]

I have tuned part time at the university for the last couple of years and 
had definitely suspected that some student had a tuning hammer because of 
really odd tunings - or out of tunings.
Couple of weeks ago I was in one of the professor's office tuning a 
Bosenforfer - there was a very old Brinkermann in the corner of the office 
and I had a look for curiosity. Under music rack was the hammer that I was 
looking for - nicely hidden. Not even a good one - the ebay goose neck 
$20.00 special.
Gene
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ron Nossaman" <rnossaman at cox.net>
To: "Pianotech" <Pianotech at ptg.org>; <Caut at ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 2:55 PM
Subject: tuning anomaly


>
> This morning, I tuned a Baldwin K (about a 6'? grand) in a high school. 
> Rebuilt (good job) about 20 years ago, and I'd last tuned it in March this 
> year at about 30%RH. It was at 65%RH today, so I expected the usual 20 
> cents sharp in the low tenor, with the rest not that far off. Wrong! It 
> was about 6 beats sharp at A-4, tapering down to about 1 beat at A-0, with 
> no real discontinuity across the bass/tenor break. Strange. From A-4 it 
> went up to about 8 beats sharp at the strut, and about 12 beats sharp at 
> the next strut, tapering back down to about 2 beats sharp at C-8. Again, 
> the beat rates progressed smoothly, even across the struts. It's like it 
> had been tuned that sharp intentionally. Now the fun part. Going from 
> about 8 beats sharp at G-5, G#-5 to C-6 were all close to 3 semitones low, 
> with C#-6 going right back to the 8 beats sharp plan!! No detectable 
> gremlins other than the tuning.
>
> I asked the guy when he came in to frisk everyone and confiscate that 
> tuning hammer, and he swore up and down that nobody had touched it, and it 
> had just gone out like that. Right. Hello, I'm Babbakazoo!
>
> The other three pianos were typical, so I wasn't just having a *really* 
> bad day when I tuned them in March, or at least not all day.
>
> Tomorrow morning, I get to drive an hour to look at a Steinway D with 
> reported tonal problems in octave 5-6. Gonna need more CA.
>
> Ron N
>
>