[pianotech] My first Wegman

[Jim Moy]

I tuned a circa 1890 Wegman upright for the first time, and have been
reading some of the discussions about the tuning pin system in the
archives. You all might enjoy the attached image, a picture of the tuning
instructions the owner found inside the piano.

The pins responded to my Reyburn impact lever in an interesting way. I tend
to have the center of the swing either vertical or slightly CCW. When
raising pitch, in increments of pitch change seemed very controlled and
predictable. I imagine the position of the lever kept the pressure neutral
where the pin contacts the teardrop shaped hole at the time of impact.
However, when dropping pitch, it must roll the pin away from the friction
points, because there were occasional large drops in pitch, 20-50 cents, on
a single tap. I'm thinking about this only now after yesterday's pitch
raise session. I may try my smooth pull lever when I see it next.

There were broken strings, and a few more broke while tuning despite not
overpulling, protek'ing the bearing points, and dropping pitch to break
binding. So I will be going back to repair a total of a dozen of them.
(Maybe more after fine tuning.) The condition is fair, and the owner was
alright with all my caveats, he just wants it playable.

In this upright they are all single-string from bottom to top, so I suspect
that will make the job a bit longer, winding all those loops. Thoughts on
process? I'm thinking of getting all the measurements first, then cutting
all the lengths, then winding all the loops at once, then installing them.

Jim
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