Hello all, I just tuned an old M+H BB that had been restrung sometime in the past (10-20 years?) with either fat no.3 pins or skinny no.4's. Upon initial inspection the previous tuning- done last Jan. by some one down state before the piano was moved here (chicago)- was remarkably solid. The piano was about 4 cents flat so I thought "piece of cake" tuning. As soon as I touched the first pin and thought "How nice and tight!", BOINNNGGG! jumpy pins! The whole tuning took 2 1/2 hours fighting strings that went either way sharp or flat of my aim. I had to get each note close to pitch and then use my hammer to knock the pin fore or aft to "fine" tune. The wire itself rendered quite nicely across all bearing points and the final tuning was certainly acceptable and musical, but what a lot of work! Exactly what causes jumpy pins and what if anything besides a new pinblock will cure this problem? I would say that 80% of the pins were jumpy, 15% marginal, and 5% OK. Best to all, Al Zajicek RPT
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