<HTML style="FONT-SIZE: x-small; FONT-FAMILY: MS Sans Serif" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40" xmlns:o = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:st1 = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2873" name=GENERATOR><o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="State"></o:SmartTagType><o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"></o:SmartTagType><o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:SmartTagType> <STYLE>st1\:* { BEHAVIOR: url(#default#ieooui) } </STYLE> <STYLE>  </STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY lang=EN-US vLink=purple link=blue bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV> <DIV>Tuned a really crappy little console the other day -- I wrote about it on here, the one with the pins driven in so far that the coils were up against the plate/pin bushings. They had a big ceiling fan in the middle of this small, maybe 10X10 room. It didn't present a problem, as Terry says below, because I just mentally "tuned it out" (no pun intended). It was interesting though as it sounded for all the world like we had hooked up an old set of Leslie speakers to the piano .... gave it a nice mellow reverb!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>By the way, with the owner's approval, I tuned that piano exactly 100 cents flat. I know, I know, all you purists out there are palpitating right now, but it solved the problem and the piano actually ended up sounding somewhat better than I'd hoped. As many of the strings were being tuned down, I could feel an odd sensation through the hammer as the coil first turned on the uneven wood of the bushings and then was released from it. Then I could tune the whole piano with no worries at all about breaking strings.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Altogether I put 10 new pieces of wire in the piano -- the five strings that were broken when I arrived, and the five that failed before I gave up on anything approaching A440.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>CAUTION: If anyone else needs to take this drastic step following a Bozo Banger with a Heavy Hammer on a Pitiful Piano, and you are using an ETD, do NOT measure the inharmonicity of strings a half step off (measuring key #41 and telling the machine it's a "C", for example, even though its actual pitch IS in the neighborhood of C256, etc.) .... it throws the curve off considerably. Just measure notes as usual but with the basic offset adjusted to where you tuned it, in this case  -100 cents. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <DIV>Alan Barnard</DIV> <DIV>Salem, Missouri</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>"I looked up my family tree and found out I was the sap." Rodney Dangerfield</DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>