<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>Tough Tuning!</title>
<style>
<!--
p { MARGIN: 0px; }
-->
</style>
</head>
<body>PRESSURE BAR : On a couple of occasions, I have actually backed the pressure bar off a bit and much improved the tuneability (is that a word) of those particular up tight, upright pianos (none were S&S, that I can recall). This is a gutsy move and takes some time; not for the feint (faint?) of heart, perhaps, and not for a freshly-hatched newbie, methinks ... but it can tame a beast.<br/><br/>FELT UNDER FRONT DUPLEX : The purpose of this felt is to (a) look spiffy in the showroom, (b) conceal a goofy-looking scale design that leaves so much room 'twixt capo (or agraffe) and pin, (c) prevent any unwanted singing from this particular choir, and--most important--(d) to attract and hold moisture, aerosol grease and oils (cooking, etc.), and dirt--thus ensuring future ugliness and shorter string life. The amount of this "stuff" is particularly egregious in some pianos (Chinese Steck grands, come to mind), where the amount of felt is particularly prodigious AND there exists a slope from pin to agraffe that would be daunting to an Olympic skier. I have tried literally soaking said keratinous, crimson-tinted oxazone-carbonyl-<a title="Hydrophobic" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrophobic"><font color="#000000">lipophilic</font></a>-stain-impregnated, ovis aerian follicular epidurmal fillimentary matter with CLP and found no relief. YRMV.<br/><br/><img hspace="0" src="cid:sheep.jpg@39470.9711093056.767" align="baseline" border="0"/><br/><br/>Alan Barnard<br/>Salem, MO<br/></body>
</html>