<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD><TITLE>HTML Message</TITLE> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <STYLE>P { MARGIN: 0px } </STYLE> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2912" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY style="BORDER-TOP-STYLE: none; BORDER-RIGHT-STYLE: none; BORDER-LEFT-STYLE: none; BORDER-BOTTOM-STYLE: none" bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dear Alan:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Great story. I tuned a restrsung 1887 Steinway that was way out of tune. It took me forever to get it to keep on pitch once I raised it I assumed it was our damp summer weather. On the other hand, a weak pin block that was not replaced when restrung might well be the problem. Thanks.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Wayne Williams</FONT></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=tune4u@earthlink.net href="mailto:tune4u@earthlink.net">Alan R. Barnard</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, July 30, 2006 5:33 PM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Startlingly Stable Steinway</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <P>You'll think I'm making this up or exagerating but I'm not ...</P> <P> </P> <P>1906 AIII, had serious issues when I first saw it. Most serious, pin block very weak. She'd had it restrung and they never even suggested a new block. Then, when they inserted the new pins, they left some of them very high. Terrible job.</P> <P> </P> <P>Anyway, piano wouldn't hold tune for anything. older customer, not willing to rebuild ----Ooooooh what a candidate! So I applied CA, tapped in the high pins, and installed a Dampp-chaser just for good measure (closed up some see-thru soundboard cracks). That was about two years ago.</P> <P> </P> <P>We were tuning every six months but she put me off last time saying it "still sounded good".  Well, you know how that goes. At the one year mark I arrived to tune the piano, she said it still sounded good but a note was sticking. Okay.</P> <P> </P> <P>Sat down and noodled a few notes. It DID sound good. Got out the gear and started to tune. A4 center string was dead-on A440 and I mean dead on, exactly at A440!</P> <P> </P> <P>Tuned the piano and had multiple freebies, including some don't-touch'em unisons. There was not a single string more than 3 or 4 cents out and darned few that were that "bad". And I'm very fussy about on-pitch notes and dead-on unisons.</P> <P> </P> <P>The only real aggravation left is that this piano plays like a Mack truck. Very heavy and way out of regulation. She likes it that way, what can you say. And BTW, she was a concert pianist and can still --heavy action and all--bring Beethoven and Brahms out of that piano that'll give you goose bumps.</P> <P> </P> <P>It's an interesting life.</P> <P> </P> <P>Alan Barnard<BR>Salem, MO<BR>Joshua 24:15<BR><BR><BR></P></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>