[pianotech] Honky tonk tuning

[Robin Stevens]

Terry wrote < I guess I'm just a bugger for bringing a piano up to pitch any
time I can.> Yes Terry so am I!!!  but as this customer's future doctor wife
has a new Kawai grand inside the house the old banger in the shed won't be
used for anything other than him to play his rag time music. I tune the
Kawai regularly so as his future wife is paying for this job I'll  do the
honky tonk tuning first then see how the pins feel for a pitch raise. Here
in the dry mid north of South Australia the 100 year old pianos have dried
out like a biscuit resulting in very loose pins combined with owners  who
won't spend any money on anything more than a standard tuning!!

Robin 

 

 

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Terry Farrell
Sent: Wednesday, 23 February 2011 2:19 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Honky tonk tuning

 

Hi Robin,

 

Too old to raise pitch due to "not so tight" pins and 100 year old strings?
First of all, forget the age of the strings. Just for fun I played around
with a 1900 Everett grand that I own and cranked up the tension on a half
dozen strings or so to see when they would break. They finally broke when
they were about 300 cents sharp!

 

And the pins are not tight? They are loose? how loose? Did you try bringing
it up to pitch to see what happens?

 

I guess I'm just a bugger for bringing a piano up to pitch any time I can.

 

Terry Farrell

 

 

 

On Feb 22, 2011, at 5:33 PM, Robin Stevens wrote:





Had a unusual request from a customer to tune his old German piano to the
honky tonky sound. I was just tempted to tell him just play it how it is
even though it was one step flat! It's too old to  raised due to not so
tight pins and 100 year old strings. I remember about 40 years ago when
Winifred Atwell was the queen of the honky tonk sound she came to Adelaide
South Australia where I had the job of checking the tuning of her straight
strung English piano plus the Steinway O she hired from the firm I worked
for. I think that the method was to tune the piano normally and then let one
string down for the vibration affect. With the advent of PDAs nowadays I am
wondering how many cents sharp or flat the third string is changed? It would
made it more even if I tune the piano first then change RCT setting for that
detuned string to - +10 or whatever. I don't think that the bass strings are
detuned. Has anybody amongst the old timers on this list remember tuning for
this artist?

Thanks

Robin Stevens ARPT

South Australia

PS A youtube search has many clips of Winifred Atwell playing.

 

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