kawai tuning stability

[Larry Beach]

At 12:56 PM 1/26/97 -0600, you wrote:

>Tuning both Kawais and Yamahas I find that, in the high tenor and treble, a
>good HARD blow is necessary to get the strings to render through the bridge.
>Not hitting them hard enough during tuning accounts for a lot of the aparent
>instability problems....
>
> Ron Nossaman
>
>
Dear Ron and list:

I work with Yamahas frequently, and the odd Kawai.  It is true that some
require a strong blow to equalise the tension across the friction points of
the string.  However, I find that this generally needs to be done for only
the first few tunings of the instrument.  After that, the minor changes in
the pitch do not cause subsequent disturbances in the tension equilibrium
across the bridge.  In fact, over the last few months, some of the new
Yamahas I have tuned have not required that process.  What's more, is that
some pianos, especially grands, can creep back up if you give too hard a
blow.  For the local Vancouver Chapter of PTG (now Southwest BC Chapter of
PTG) we use a Yamaha C7 for the exam piano.  This creeping up that I
described happened to me in the treble, and I didn't notice it until it was
too late.  Fortunately, I had enough time to correct most of it, and passed
the exam, but I could have done even better if I had considered that
possibility on that piano.  I guess the rule here is, don't take anything
for granted!

Larry Beach
Associate Member, PTG