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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: =
black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=piano@charlesneuman.net =
href="mailto:piano@charlesneuman.net">Charles
Neuman</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> Thursday, May 22, 2003 =
12:40
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> spinet octaves</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>I don't mean to start a spinet-bashing session, but I just want =
to see
if<BR>it's me or the piano:<BR><BR>When tuning a spinet, I find it =
hard to
make nice clean octaves. (I use an<BR>ETD to tune, but I also do =
everything
aurally as I tune, for practice.)<BR>The other day, the customer was =
sitting
in the same room as me while I<BR>tuned. I was embarassed that I was =
tuning
their piano and couldn't get a<BR>clean-sounding octave! So I moved =
on,
worried about what the final result<BR>would sound like. She didn't =
seem to
notice anything wrong. I'm still not<BR>sure if I did any good to the =
piano or
not.<BR><BR>So do I need more practice, or am I doing what can be =
done? Note:
I don't<BR>seem to have this problem on a Steinway B.<BR><BR>By the =
way, those
Baldwin spinets have a surprisingly good sound for their<BR>size, I =
have to
admit. I always emphasize that to the customer, and they<BR>seem =
proud. I
still would rather not be near one, but for what they are,<BR>they =
seem not so
bad.<BR><BR>Charles Neuman<BR>PTG Assoc, Long Island -
=
Nassau<BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>pianotec=
h
list info: <A
=
href="https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives">http://www.ptg.org=
/mailman/listinfo/pianotech</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>If the unclean octaves are up in the treble, you might try =
seating
strings on the bridge, in spite of the recent arguments to the =
contrary.
You don't always have to take the action out -- you can often reach =
thru with
a long screwdriver, just rest it on the string just above the bridge =
pin and
bump the end of the handle with your palm. Sometimes cleans up =
the
tone.</DIV>
<DIV> As others have said, spinets aren't going to =
sound
like larger pianos or tune up as nicely. There's a lot of =
inharmonicity
and the bass/tenor break often requires a lot of compromising. =
The human
ear may give more musical results than an ETD here. </DIV>
<DIV> Yes the Baldwin Acrosonics are probably the =
best
spinets around, although Yamahas were pretty decent (haven't been made =
for 25
years or more, though).</DIV>
<DIV> Don't despair too much, though -- just get it =
as best
you can. I tuned a 6-foot Steinert grand today that had a few =
strings
with beats in them, that is, beats in just one string of some of the
unisons. Seating strings didn't help. Not sure what caused =
them,
but I just got them to sound as good as they could. </DIV>
<DIV> --David Nereson,
RPT<BR><BR></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>