Hi Ron, You could hit them..or you could control the humidity. I do agree the piano must be stabilized--but as you point out--that can be done with very few strong blows. I prefer to control humidity. At 11:40 AM 3/24/2008 -0600, you wrote: > >The point I've tried to make for many years, still >unsuccessfully, is that the problem isn't necessarily at the V >bar, as is almost universally assumed. When we get instant >aural (or visual) verification of change with any pin >movement, then test blows are redundant if we have any idea >what we're doing with the tuning hammer - if it's coming from >the V bar. Tune a string in the capo section, using light >blows. Get it where you want it, and where it stays there >through a few more light blows. Then whack it. Depending on >the severity and direction of humidity swings the piano had >been through since you last tuned it, and how far you moved >the string to tune it this time, it will either not change >perceptibly, or drop anywhere from just detectable, to 4+ >beats. Unless we're hopelessly incompetent with a tuning >hammer, that pitch drop didn't come from the V bar. It came >through the bridge. Now, tune the string again, using the same >soft blows as the first time. Get it where you want it, and >whack it again. What happens? It stays put, if you know how to >run the hammer. If we couldn't stabilize the string with soft >blows the first time, why could we the second? Try it on the >next string (next note). You'll likely get a similar effect. >Did you forget how to run the hammer since the second pass on >that last string. No, of course not. You just didn't hit it >hard enough, at least once, to find out if it would render >through the bridge before you quit tuning it. On the third >string (next note), don't touch the pin at all. Note where the >pitch is, and whack it. If the other two strings dropped in >pitch, this one likely will too, and you hadn't laid hammer to >it yet, so you can't blame hammer technique. > >Continual pounding will cause a string to creep sharp when we >quit and come back to check in a minute or so. This, I think, >comes from the V bar because we weren't getting an accurate >representation of what we had when we left it. So it's >possible to pound too hard as well as not hard enough. > >It's a combination of things. The people who say you can tune >softly with stability with just good hammer technique are >either tuning pianos who's MC hasn't changed at all since they >last tuned it, and they're making one cent revisions, or they >aren't aware of how lousy their tunings sound the week after >they did them. Aside from the unusually inept "tooner", >virtually all of the tuners I've followed from one to three >weeks after their efforts has been a "don't have to hit 'em to >get 'em stable" practitioner. If you're tuning in real world >climate conditions, you *do* have to hit 'em enough, at >least once, to find out what slack the back scale has to give >you. Then you adjust your approach to what the piano tells you >is necessary. > > >> I recently tuned a church grand in which, before tuning, I could mute >> off a string in the octave 7 region, and knock it 3 to 8 cents flat with >> just one moderate test blow (not pounding, but about as hard as I might >> actually strike a key when playing my favorite Liszt Etude). The >> previous tuner might suggest I play too hard, but I would say he did not >> use firm enough test blows, and got lucky that nobody played it hard >> enough to cause a problem. > >I have pianos that do the same thing. Since I'm the previous >tuner, I know it wasn't the last guy not hitting them hard >enough. The pianos I find this in have typically gone through >40%+ humidity swings between tunings. These same pianos, tuned >again in the same season a couple of months later (wedding >funeral, etc), don't do this. Tuned again at their regularly >scheduled time, they do. When I follow someone a week of >stable weather after he tuned it and can do this, it's not >humidity. >Ron N > > >-- >No virus found in this incoming message. >Checked by AVG. >Version: 7.5.519 / Virus Database: 269.21.8/1340 - Release Date: 3/23/2008 6:50 PM > > Regards, Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.P.T. Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat mailto:pianotuna at yahoo.com http://us.geocities.com/drpt1948/ 3004 Grant Rd. REGINA, SK, S4S 5G7 306-539-0716 or 1-888-29t-uner
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC