On Sun, Jun 13, 2010 at 2:31 PM, Joseph Garrett <joegarrett at earthlink.net>wrote: > Floyd said: > "A couple of months ago I worked on a New Scale Williams (Canada) piano. > It's a large vertical, from the teen or twenties of the last century. I > tried to tune it but found myself chasing the pitch. It was late in the day, > lighting was poor and getting worse, and it was one of the pianos that has > the pressure bar cast into the plate, hindering access to and visibility of > the treble section. By the time I left it was better in tune than when I > started, but I did not consider the work to be at a billable standard, so I > simply arranged to return. > I returned to the piano today, starting late morning, and bringing my own > light source. I anticipated that I might be chasing the pitch for a while, > but I was going to chase it until it landed. It never landed. > The piano was largely sharp, maybe 5 to 8 cents, some places a little more. > I did an initial pitch correction pass, using Tunelab Pocket with my usual > pitch correction settings. I did a second pass with no overshoot. I then > used my split mute to survey the state of the center strings of the middle > section. Lots of sharp notes. I did another pass of the middle section, and > was finding notes up to 8 cents sharp. I would tune several notes, go back > and check my work, and find that it was sharp again. After maybe three or > four passes, most of the notes were stabilizing, but there were rendering > issues that was making everything move along very slowly, the kicker, about > 3 hours in (!) was the last note before the strut at the top of the middle > section. 5 cents sharp. Tune the middle string, bring in the unisons, now > it's five cents flat. Back and forth and back and forth. I checked the lower > half of the treble section. Nothing at pitch, everything sharp. Feeling > awkwa > rd already, having been at it so long, I billed the customer for the repair > I had completed (a missing treble string), and admitted that the piano had > won the the round. > I've been tuning pianos for 7 years. I'm not unaccustomed to rendering > problems. But this is the only time I've been defeated by a piano like this. > Tuning pin tightness is good, except for a couple. The bridge is not loose. > The plate is not cracked. The upper termination point for the tenor and > treble strings is not a cast surface, but a long cylindrical rod in a groove > on the plate. The unisons agree with each other, but whole ranges of notes > simply will not stay where I put them, even after multiple passes. I was > unable to diagnose the problem. What am I missing?" > > Floyd, > Two that I can think of: 1. lubricate the under felt above the pressure bar > as well as the pressure bar/capo/agraffes, with LPS-1. Spray some in the cap > and apply with a paint brush. It will disapate w/in a few weeks and will not > collect dust. 2. check pinblock for separations and tighten ALL bolts. It's > obvious that the case is "racking". (at least to me<G>) > Hope that helps. > Joe > > > Joe Garrett, R.P.T. (Oregon) > Captain, Tool Police > Squares R I > > > > Sounds like they "copied" a lot of things from the S&S verticals! Every one of those I tune I spend more time chasing pitch than I do actually tuning! Mike -- It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC) Michael Magness Magness Piano Service 608-786-4404 www.IFixPianos.com email mike at ifixpianos.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100613/b91444e5/attachment.htm>
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