Type O

[Dean May]

Alan wrote: It's like the other question I posed and have never felt I had a
satisfactory answer: Since a piano cycles up and down, typically, with
humidity swings, why doesn't it always stay centered around the last tuned
pitch. In other words, what is the cause of long term major pitch drops and
what has changed in that piano over the 20 years since it was last at pitch.
Do the pins turn? Does the wire just keep stretching? Why don't we know? 

 

 

My theory is that once the "slack" is taken out of the strings, the pitch
does not drop significantly. I have seen pianos that haven't been tuned in
20-30 years at or near  pitch because early in their life they were tuned
frequently. 

 

Also I've run across 20 year old Kimballs that had never been tuned. Of
course they would be 150 cents flat. But once the customer had a several
tunings done over 5-6 years, then skip 5-6 years, the piano would still be
close to pitch. I've seen this happen, I promise, I am not making it up. ;-)

 

In short, my theory on the cause of major pitch drops is that it mostly
happens in pianos that have never had the initial tunings required to get
the stretch taken out of the new wire. 

 

Dean

Dean May             cell 812.239.3359 

PianoRebuilders.com   812.235.5272 

Terre Haute IN  47802

  _____  

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Alan R. Barnard
Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 10:24 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Type O

 

Finished tuning a Yamaha grand (2 pedals, about C sized, grey market?) and
was filling out my invoice when I slightly sliced my right pinky--paper cut,
right near the nail. I didn't think too much of it, there was a drop of
blood which wiped on a tissue. 

 

Put tools away except for hammer, went to make customary final check of
tuning. Got to playing a little Brahms and kind of distractedly looking at
the lady's weird little dog.

 

When I looked back at the keyboard, it looked like OJ had been playing
Rachmaninoff. With me staring stupidly at my finger and the keys, in walks
the customer.

 

BTW as to the "false beats" discussion that has been going on (and on and on
...) I have a poser, an observation: How come we don't know what is really
going on? It seems like with all the science available to us (math, high
speed photography, spectrum analyzers, etc.) that we would have more
definitive knowledge of causes and cures by now.

 

 

Alan Barnard
Salem, MO
Joshua 24:15



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