<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; = charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1505" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hi Robert,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Please define out of tune. ie, unisons, = stretch, Bass to tenor??</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>J</FONT>oe Goss RPT<BR>Mother Goose = Tools<BR><A href="mailto:imatunr@srvinet.com">imatunr@srvinet.com</A><BR><A href="http://www.mothergoosetools.com">www.mothergoosetools.com</A></DI= V> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; = BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: = black"><B>From:</B> <A title=rfinley@rcn.com href="mailto:rfinley@rcn.com">Robert = Finley</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> Monday, July 04, 2005 = 11:26 AM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Tuning Stabilty = Question</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I would like to ask your opinion = about piano tuning stability. Last weekend we finished our international piano = competition in Boston. It began on Wednesday June 22nd. I was the director of the competition and had a lot of administrative work to do.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>A couple of weekends before the = competition I made several visits to the college and tuned four of the practice = pianos, because last time in 2003 they were badly out of tune. They hadn't = been tuned since January, the beginning of the semester, and I thought I would = save our organization some money. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The pianos were very old (looked as = if they were from the early 1900s), and consisted of two Steinway Bs, a Steinway A, = and  a Baldwin Hamilton Studio console.  They didn't = seem to have been looked after very well. There were paper clips, pins, = dust and other debris inside. Some of the tuning pins were rather loose. The = music stand on a Steinway B was broken and in terrible shape. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I used the SAT III to  to tune = them. I applied strong blows to equalize the tension in the strings, and = lighter listening blows to check the resultant tuning. When I finished = each piano, there was a very big improvement, and I could have given a = recital on each of them. The notes had a bell like clarity, although the = tone of the Baldwin upright was rather mediocre. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>During the competition, the practice pianos were in use from 8 am until 11 pm each day = by contestants. They practiced such things as the Prokofiev Toccata, = Rachmaninoff Etudes, Liszt etc, and they began to go out of tune. The air = conditioning in the building cycled on and off during the night and day. They were in = quite out of tune by the end of the competition. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>My question is, would you typically = expect pianos to go out of tune under these circumstances or should they have held = their tuning better? I know it is difficult to say without seeing the = pianos, but I just wondered what your opinion might be.  I'm not sure what else = I could have done to make the pianos hold their tuning longer. I couldn't go = in to re-tune them because they were constantly in use by the contestants = from morning to late at night. I was also overloaded with work, running the = competition, so I wouldn't have had the time anyway. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Thanks for your thoughts and a happy = July 4th. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Robert Finley</FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>