Well, I do it so automatically now that I had to take a bit of time to think
about what it was that was actually taking place.
David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Fred
Sturm
Sent: Sunday, October 18, 2009 4:34 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Bechstein model B tuning stability
Hi David,
Well stated. Your original post seemed a bit timid:
"A very conscious rotary motion with even a slight forward press"
which kind of sounded like you didn't really mean it about the forward
press. I was just trying to say "right on! press that hammer down with no
apologies!" I agree with you 100%. Including about the worst scenario
(though an extra loose block with lots of friction runs a close second).
Fred
On Oct 18, 2009, at 4:31 PM, David Love wrote:
The basic idea is that you manipulate the pin with counter pressure to the
natural tendency for the pin to twist so that the change in pitch only
reflects actual movement of the pin in the block. At least that's what I
meant in the original post. With the hammer at 12:00 you can press slightly
downward which will move the pin toward the string as you are turning the
pin and it is twisting before it actually moves in the block. With practice
you can learn to feel the amount of downward pressure needed to negate the
pitch change associated with the twisting of the pin. When you release the
downward pressure and also allow the pin to relax with some practice those
two forces will remain net neutral. This allows you to creep up to the
target pitch rather than have to pull it a bit sharp and set it downward as
this is particularly difficult with high friction in the string bearing
segments. The best way to learn this is with an ETD where you can actually
see what's happening while you feel the pin. The amount of pressure needed
to compensate for twisting will change depending on how tight the block is.
The worst possible scenario is severe friction through the string segments
combined with an overly tight block. Usually, Bechstein pianos (at least
older ones) don't suffer from overly tight blocks and the ones that are open
faced minimize the flagpolling effect because of the close proximity of the
hammer pin contact to the block itself.
David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Fred
Sturm
Sent: Sunday, October 18, 2009 9:45 AM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Bechstein model B tuning stability
On Oct 17, 2009, at 3:53 PM, Jeannie Grassi wrote:
Hi Fred, and anyone else,
Can you take your description of downward and upward motion a step further?
I've been hearing conflicting descriptions of this recently in private
communications. What I'm asking is specifically..when the pitch needs to go
up, do you lift up on the end of the tuning lever at the same time there is
a slight rotation to sharpen? And conversely, does one push down and rotate
slightly flat? I've had the opposite described and just want to get a sense
of how most people interpret this deliberate flag-poling motion. I've
always used it the way I've described. Have I been climbing up the wrong
flagpole all these years???? :>)
jeannie
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
fssturm at unm.edu
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