strings cannot be tuned!

[Avery Todd]

Russell,

   Just a comment. The same type of thing was happening on one of our D's
when I first came here. It took me a little while to figure out the
problem, but I finally did. Look VERY closely at the becket. The bend in
the wire should be very close to the hole and a reasonably sharp bend. If
it looks like it's elongating, especially if the problem notes are only the
strings which have been replaced, it is very possible that the strings are
slipping out of the tuning pin hole very gradually. Since nothing else
seems to be helping, why not try replacing one of the problem strings
yourself and make extremely sure the wire is into the hole all the way
after it's pulled up to pitch?
   One possiblity. Maybe someone else will come up with another idea.

Avery

>       I service a Howard Grand piano. The owner told me when I started
>tuning for him that there were three notes in  the upper treble that would
>not stay in tune . He mentioned that there had been a string or two replaced
>on those notes so I thought it must be going out of tune before the rest of
>the piano because of the new strings streaching . However, I had a terible
>time tuning these notes . they are the G6 , G#6 , and A6 . The G and G# are
>the two notes to the Left of the highest plate strut and the A
>is to the Right of the strut . Each time I would tune these notes a good test
>blow would knock them out again. Even trying to anticipates how much the test
>blow would drop the
>pitch of the note did not help. After about 15 minutes on these three notes I
>was somehow able to stabalize them and the owner said they stayed in tune
>longer than usual. On my next visit it was even worse . I must have spent 20
>minutes trying to tune these notes and when they were stabalized the unisons
>did not match well.
>
>       The bridge looks fine and the coils on the tuning pin looks good. I
>suspect because the notes are all beside each other and they are on either
>side of a plate strut that the problem is not in the strings but in the
>structure of the piano in this area . only these notes are a problem . Does
>anyone have any ideas as to what might be going on here
>I would greatly appreciate any input anyone might have
>
>
>                               Russell Schmidt R.P.T.

_____________________________________
Avery Todd, RPT
Moores School of Music
University of Houston
713-743-3226
atodd@uh.edu
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