[pianotech] FW: tuning pin tightness

[Ron Nossaman]

Leslie Bartlett wrote:
> Does the company who sold the piano have no responsibility to fix this 
> problem?   

Depends on who you talk to. The website specifies the pinblock 
as "Highest grade, from Germany". I take that to mean 
Delignit, which doesn't necessarily mean tunability.


>I spent a number of hours at their recommendation, attempting 
> to loosen the pins, back and forth up to 40 times. 

This is always suggested first as a "fix", though I've never 
seen it to actually work, because pin movement in the block 
doesn't actually seem to loosen the fit.


>Local symphony tuner 
> came to look at another problem, was told about the pins, and they were 
> fine.  

Of course they were.


>Now, six months later, they’re back to being as tight as they 
> were when the piano was delivered.  I am getting within a couple cents 
> on most notes, but it’s a four-hour tuning.  I don’t particularly like 
> that kind of stress. The gig involves all three pianos Sunday night.  I 
> got the Shigueru done today, and one pass of each Estonia- 8 hours with 
> a fifteen minute break for lunch.  I’ll put four hours in tomorrow……  
> No, I’m not being paid extra, except the man in charge said I needed to 
> put a surcharge on the one Estonia.   

A surcharge? You're kidding! How about spending a reasonable 
amount of time on the bloody things and referring them to the 
local symphony tuner who saw no problem if they didn't like 
the result? If he, finding nothing wrong with the pin fit, can 
tune them, then it's your incapacity that's preventing you 
from doing it, and that's the way it is. If you're 
realistically evaluating the job against your capabilities, 
which I presume to be the case, he won't fare any better, and 
that's the way *that* is. As long as you're willing to play 
someone elses game by their rules and take the beating that 
inevitably results, you'll never do so well as to break even. 
Call the question. Whether the powers that be are cogent 
enough to  understand the situation and know the difference is 
statistically a very low odds crap shoot, but that's the coin 
of the realm and you don't get a choice there. Die on your 
feet, or, almost, live on your knees. Your choice, and you get 
to make it all over again every day.


>But back to my question- doesn’t 
> the company selling the instrument have responsibility for a number of 
> years?

Ask them. We don't make the call.
Ron N