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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Kevin E. Ramsey<BR><A
href="mailto:ramsey@extremezone.com">ramsey@extremezone.com</A></FONT><=
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<DIV>On the other side of the coin, I tuned a brand new(I unpacked it, =
too...), <BR>Chinese built Samick 42" piano about a month ago. =
This past
week, I went <BR>into the same store to do a couple of floor =
tunings.
The manager led me over <BR>to a piano, a 42" Samick. "Does this =
sound
tuned to you?" he asked. He <BR>played a few chords, then some
octaves. Sounded pretty bad, most of the <BR>mid-range was at =
least 10
cents flat, the treble flatter, the bass not quite <BR>so bad. =
He opened
the lid, pointed at the orange sticker(hey, they asked me <BR>to do =
it!) with
my initials and the date on it, and said "you tuned it about <BR>a =
month
ago." Dirty trick! Embarassing, nonetheless. I =
pointed out
that, <BR>in my realm of experience, these pianos are extremely =
unstable and
that they <BR>need to be pitch-raised/dropped then fine tuned as soon =
as they
are unpacked <BR>and put on the floor.<BR><BR>Given the stability of =
the
tunings I put on a Charles Walter grand and many <BR>other pianos in =
the same
store, I have to say that it is a matter of <BR>climatizing: from =
being
Asian-built and coming to the US, as well as from the <BR>change of =
seasons in
CA from wet and cool when I first tuned it, to warm and <BR>dry when I =
checked
the piano. Like Terry, I've tuned many older American <BR>pianos =
that
have been remarkably close to pitch after a 10 year tuning =
<BR>hiatus.
Just proves that newer isn't better. <BR><BR>Dave Stahl</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> Where I come from, =
taking a
piano from Asia out of a box and tuning it means that it's in tune, =
for the
moment...... It's still a "raw" piano, with no real settling or =
stabilizing.
My answer would have been "What did you expect?" The piano's going to =
change
big-time for a while. Heck, we started handling Pearl Rivers down =
here; I had
to do one the other day ( No notes of sympathy necessary ) and all the =
keys
were cockeyed. They weren't when they took it out of the box,,,, but a =
couple
of weeks later,,,,, Whoa! I looked at those keys too, they had three =
ply's top
to bottom. What I'm thinking is that they had this laminated board as =
a
key blank, the inner ply wasn't quite dry, and when they cut it =
into keys
it warped. Only took me half an hour or so, but really; If that big a =
change
is going to happen to the keys, what do you think is happening to the =
rest of
the piano? </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> BTW, I really had =
to laugh
when I saw a few tissue paper punchings in there.........</FONT></DIV>
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