Wurlitzers and false beats

[Robin Blankenship]

Hi,
Pretty common problem. Here in Virginia, if you look up the definition of "false beats", they usually have a picture of a Wurlitzer spinet alongside it. 

There are lots of reasons known and suspected of causing false beats in any piano. But, I have my own theory about them in lower end pianos. Quite often, I am called to tune a spinet that has not been maintained at all for many years. "The grandkids are taking lessons and they are over here every afternoon. So, I thought I'd get it tuned even though its only been 20 years since little Suzie our daughter was taking piano lessons!!"

By the time I see this piano, it is often 65 to 100 cents low in pitch. Often I do not notice false beats (especially in the 5th and 6th octaves) at that time. But, after pulling pitch up to at least near A-440, false beats are all over the place. 

I suspect that the bends in the wire at the bridge pins are being pulled into the speaking length of the string. And, I further believe that this bend permits or encourages or causes the wire to vibrate irregularly; i.e., yielding false beats. 

Its not just Wurlitzer's, of course. But, since we see so many of them, it would be natural to make the association. 

Just a hunch. 

Robin Blankenship
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: dbpowell1 at juno.com 
  To: pianotech at ptg.org 
  Sent: Friday, January 19, 2007 8:34 AM


  Can someone tell me why Wurlitzer's ,mostly the spinets are nothing but one BIG false beat. A whole lot of my customers here in central Texas have them.

  Thanks D. Powell



  ________________________________________________________________________
  Interested in getting caught up on today's news?
  Click here to checkout USA TODAY Headlines.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20070119/0a4d12e3/attachment.html