<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN"> <html><head><style type="text/css"></style><title>Poor fix for a dead killer octave</title></head><body> <div>Hi all,</div> <div><br></div> <div>Today I tuned a circ. 1953 D at one of our leading Sydney universities. I've previously mentioned this instrument and its near impossible tunability. But today I had a digital camera with me, so I couldn't resist the temptation to post an image to the pianotech list. See image below.</div> <div><br></div> <div><img src="cid:a06110408bebdeedb7bdf@[10.0.0.13].1.0"></div> <div><br></div> <div>The rest of the piano has been 'rebuilt' to similar standards of excellence.</div> <div><br></div> <div>This piano has a severely collapsed board in the killer octave area. Clearly it was already long dead when it was last rebuilt (1992) by a local expert, since the cuts in the stringing pillows are an attempt to restore some measure of downbearing despite the sunken board. The fact that several of the unisons are riding on top of the stringing pillows (center and left unisons of the center note in the image for example), while their neighboring unisons are sitting in the grooves as intended, seems to have escaped the attention of our 'expert' at the time of restringing the instrument. I can't describe how difficult this makes tuning the unison strings to each other.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Some years ago a leading international pianist found herself attempting to perform on this instrument. She got so vocal about the lack of tone that the technician who tuned the piano for the concert (a fine local technician and colleague) was called back to rectify his 'shoddy' work. When he tried to explain that the piano had a number of shortcoming that prevented him from getting a decent tone out of the piano, the 'real expert' who rebuilt the piano in 1992 was subsequently called in. Of course, he immediately put the University staff at ease. The problem was clearly the tuner, who was trying to shift the blame onto the condition of the instrument to mask his own incompetence. I don't share his 'smoke and mirrors' opinion and the image speaks for itself. We've been looking after this university's piano inventory for some years now. Whenever we are booked to tune this particular piano by someone who is unknown to us, we always inform he/she that we will do what is possible, but we cannot make it sound like a musical instrument.</div> <div><br></div> <div>It is one of those pianos for which tuning is a most unrewarding experience. We've all got a few of them. But you just don't expect to encounter such 'trash' within the hallowed halls of one of the most prestigious universities in the land.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Ron O.</div> <x-sigsep><pre>-- </pre></x-sigsep> <div><font face="Times New Roman" size="+1" color="#0000FF"><b>OVERS PIANOS - SYDNEY</b></font></div> <div><font color="#000000"><i>   </i></font><font color="#0000FF"><i>Grand Piano Manufacturers</i></font><font color="#000000"><br> _______________________</font></div> <div><font size="-2" color="#000000"><br> </font><font color="#000000">Web http://overspianos.com.au</font></div> <div><font color="#000000">mailto:ron@overspianos.com.au<br> _______________________</font></div> </body> </html>