[CAUT] Advice for achieving stability sooner?

[Don Mannino]

Jeff,

As I mentioned, I feel it is a combination of different things.  When I
was with Young Chang I confirmed that at that time they were using very
stiff, aggressive wire and the string bends were not settling down.  In
the capo bar area especially, the radius of the arc held by the strings
at the bends was very large, and pounding (or hooking, or pushing with a
Strate-Mate) settled them down sometimes 1/2 step or more.  Then pulling
the strings back up to pitch would move the bend enough to make it all
happen again, though not quite as much.

But once strings are settled, I agree that friction at the bridge is a
continuing factor that recurs over time, and getting the tension to pull
over the bridge is helped by the hard blows.

In some pianos there is a lot of friction at the capo bar bend as well,
and those pianos require a mean and nasty attitude on the part of the
tuner to knock them into submission. :->

Another sort of related factor is the small tuning pins, with the
over-turning of the pin a fair amount helping you to un-twist it into a
stable position.  The pounding may not do much here, but the
over-pulling does.

String stability is a full class seminar, for sure.

Don

-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of
Jeff Tanner
Sent: Monday, February 08, 2010 5:39 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Advice for achieving stability sooner?


But why is it that I don't seem to find that American pianos respond the
same way?
Tanner