Tuning old Chickerings

[Les Smith]

On Thu, 13 Jun 1996 TUNERJIM@aol.com wrote:

> For the last 20 years I've been convinced that jerk tuning has spared me
> brken strings.
> Now a jerk tuning tells me I've been wrong. Honi soit qui mal y pense.
>
> tunerjim

I'm with you, Jim, especially if it's an older piano, with badly corroded
strings. After dropping the string down a bit to make sure that it's not
hanging up on a bearing point, I bring it up to pitch with a series of
gentle "kicks"( sounds better than jerks! ), rather than trying to do it in
one motion of the hammer. However in newer pianos, with strings that aren't
so badly corroded, I frequently resort to the one-smooth-motion technique.
I think there's room for both techniques.

Les Smith
lessmith@buffnet.net