many topics

[richard west]

1.  Bulk tuning - I bulk tune in November/December and May/June.  For
years I have tried to minimize tuning at the beginning of the school
year since it seems like such a waste of time.  I tune the piano
faculty pianos, the practice grands, the classroom pianos, and of
course the performance area pianos.  I find most to be 4 to 8 cents
sharp which is usually not a big problem.  The pianos aren't any
higher because back in June they were brought down 4 to 8 cents.
The rest of the pianos wait until later.  Occassionally I get a
faculty member that *has* to have his/her piano tuned right away,
but it is rare.  We do have some humidity control, but it isn't that
great.  In any case, by holding off until later I start my real bulk
tuning and find most instruments no more than 4 cents off--no pitch
raising/lowering, just a once-through easy tuning.

2.  Hammer technique - Whenever someone mentions hammer technique the
"problem" of bending pins comes up.  I agree that one shouldn't go
jumping up and down on the tuning lever, but I don't understand the
paranoia about bending pins.  I don't see pins loosening.  The only
problem is when the pins are removed and the drill gets thrown around a
little.  Maybe there's something I'm missing.  What is the problem
with a bent tuning pin?  Are they going to break off?

3.  Restringing - There has been some comment about restringing the
upper treble.  I'm curious--how do you do it?  Do you extract the pin
like a complete restringing with over size pins?  Do you treat the job
as if you were replacing one string but doing a whole secion instead?
Do you let the tension down on the whole section or do a few strings
at a time?  How long does it take to do the top two octaves?

That's all for now.
Richard West, Member, The Department of Redundancy Department
University of Nebraska