<HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"></HEAD> <BODY style="BORDER-TOP-STYLE: none; BORDER-RIGHT-STYLE: none; BORDER-LEFT-STYLE: none; BORDER-BOTTOM-STYLE: none"> I've always called it the "Wurlitzer Whine". Partly it's the endemic problem of so many post-war, minimal quality control, designed-to-sell-as-pretty-furniture consoles and spinets, methinks. Partly it IS peculiar to Wurlies. I don't know why. I've commented on it here before and nobody much picked up on it. They can really set your teeth on edge. I think the Hamilton studios stray in that direction, too. Just tune 'em. The average customer neither knows, notices, nor cares about the subtleties of tone. I know that sounds cynical, but hey, most don't even seem to hear in-tune, out-of-tune. You can do all usual leveling, seating, b-pin tapping, mass loading, foot tapping, head scratching procedures ... and still be disappointed with the results. And who's going to pay for all that anyway? Then there was the nice lady with the Baldwin console that had a set of screaming banshees instead of a proper treble section. I spent an inordinate amount of time on my first and only call there trying to clean it up--no extra charge because she wasn't home to authorize it. It is one of the very few (happy to say) callbacks I've had. She was (and is) convinced I ruined her piano, killed the tone and the treble volume. I don't think she'll ever let me back in the door and has probably distributed hateful handbills to all her friends. Sigh. I suspect scale design problems are a major contributor, here, where maybe the strike point is activating high partials that a decent piano would not, for example. But I am NO expert on such matters. Those who are; please weigh in. Alan Barnard Salem, MO Joshua 24:15 <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 3px solid; PADDING-TOP: 5px"> <HR> Original message From: dbpowell1@juno.com To: pianotech@ptg.org Received: 01/19/2007 7:34:21 AM Subject: Can someone tell me why Wurlitzer's ,mostly the spinets are nothing but one BIG false beat. A whole lot of my customers here in central Texas have them. Thanks D. Powell ________________________________________________________________________ <A href="http://track.juno.com/s/lc?s=198954&u=http://www.usatoday.com/news/front.htm?csp=24">Interested in getting caught up on today's news? Click here to checkout USA TODAY Headlines.</A> </DIV></BODY></HTML>