[pianotech] Toy piano scaling

[Ryan Sowers]

I've tuned a few toy pianos so here's my 2 cents worth...
The best method I found to shorten the rod is to use a Dremmel with a
cut-off wheel. Those tines are very hard - you won't get far with a file.
The cut-off wheel allows you to cut a slice very neatly off the end of the
rod.

I've tried soldering to make the pitch go down but it can be difficult to
get the solder to stick. What works really well is to make a small coil out
of music wire that will fit snugly around the end of the tine. If it makes
the pitch too low you can slide it up towards the base of the tine and it
will cause the pitch to rise - kind of like tuning a Fender Rhodes.

In fact, you can cut all the bars slightly short and add a coil to each one
so that you can "fine" tune it by moving the coils.

I had a client who was putting on a toy piano recital and asked me to tune 3
of them together! It was an interesting challenge. The harmonics are pretty
wacky. They can sound surprisingly nice when their in tune! Most of the
"tuning" done in the factory is haphazard at best. The older ones seem to
sound better.



On Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 2:35 PM, Ron Nossaman <rnossaman at cox.net> wrote:

> David Doremus wrote:
>
>> This is off the wall and off topic but I thought I'd throw it out to the
>> mathematical among us....
>>
>> I have toy piano for a long time customer who wants it to work for her
>> granddaughter, several of the tines are broken. I have a friend who is a
>> metal worker so making new ones is possible, the question is how to
>> calculate the proper length without simple trial and error. Is there a
>> formula or two for calculating the pitch of a steel rod? Any advice?
>>
>> --Dave
>>
>
> I'd start with one a tad longer than the average of the one above, and the
> one below, and grind to finished length. You can calculate all day long and
> will end up doing that anyway.
> Ron N
>
>


-- 
Ryan Sowers, RPT
Puget Sound Chapter
Olympia, WA
www.pianova.net
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