warning! long. Multiple pianos and pitchraising

[Charles K. Ball]

Dear Jim,

Thank you for the interesting and informative account.  I doubt that I
could have tuned those five pianos in four hours, and am glad I did not
have to try!

I am still planning to send you my SAT III after this week (when I have
several harpsichord tunings).  I have been having a long and friendly
debate with a member of our faculty about the propriety of tuning her 1818
Graf fortepiano in equal temperament for Schubert.  Certainly I would not
want to use a temperament with only one or two tempered intervals, such as
the Kirnberger, but I have doubts that equal temperament as we know it was
widely used in 1825.  The instruments of that time had little iron bracing,
so even if an accurate equal temperament was set, it did not last for long.

I would like to attend an early music seminar where I could learn more
about historical temperaments and fortepiano and harpsichord care.

Warmest regards,

Charles

>For those few who are interested:
>
>Yesterday I received an emergency call. The Phoenix Music Teachers were
>having a concert in a large auditorium (approx 1500 seats). Eleven Pianos
>were delivered (supposedly tuned). During morning rehearsal it was
>discovered that the pianos did not go together at all. The clavinovas were
>OK, but the 11 acoustical pianos mostly had poor unisons and one was below
>pitch by 38.7 cents. Being the rescuerer that I am (codependant is the
>technical term), and "feeling their pain", I recruited my son Phil to
>help me tune the 11 pianos between 2 PM and 6PM. This meant that each of
>us did 5 pianos, but Phil got the one that was 38 cents flat. I asked him
>to do a 5 min pitch raise before pretending to tune that one (ok, I relented
>and allowed him 10 minutes). He made it with a little to spare. I was
>luckier, I only had one piano that was about 10 cents flat. I used the new
>pitch raise facility of the new SAT III and did it in one pass. I tuned
>the Bass last as usual and it didn't need much change at all.
>
>Today I called one of the teachers who was there for the concert to see how
>things went. She used terms like: "You saved our lives" and "we so
>appreciate what you did" "they all sounded so together", etc.
>
>I know this all sounds very self serving, but the reason is to go to the
>technical aspects of it.
>
>Since the pitch of all the pianos was all over the map, a decision had to
>be made early on. The weirdest scaling was on the Wurlitzer piano (the one
>with many wound strings in the Tenor section (which starts at B2). Normally
>I would tune this piano using the F4 Stretch number and pigtail the treble
>and Bass to that 3 1/2 octave temperament. This is one of the few pianos for
>which I wouldn't normally use the FAC tuning. However, I needed a single
>program to which all of the pianos would be tuned. Phil's AccuTuner was
>the model I, I couldn't use the Double Octave Beat Control of my SAT III,
>so, I took the measurements of the inharmonicity of F3=27.2 (truncated
>to 20.0), A4=9.5, and C6=8.7. Normally, that truncating which the SAT does
>with the high F3 values would bother me, but in this case with other pianos
>being tuned to this same program, I was glad to use the 20.0 number.
>
>There were several decidedly different pianos. Two kinds of Wurlitzer
>consoles, 3 Lindenauer (made by Kimball) consoles, 2 Samick consoles (the
>best of the bunch) 3 kinds of Kawai consoles (502's, 503's, 504's). Normally
>for a situation like this, I would measure FACs for each of the pianos and
>strike an average to which all the pianos would be tuned. We didn't have the
>time for this, so a judgment had to made quickly. By using the Wurlitzer
>as the standard, this meant that the Bass on all the other pianos would be
>tuned too low, and the treble would be tuned too high. The ensemble effect
>however was the saving factor here. As you recall, in a Symphony, you will
>hear 30 violins playing the same melody and it will sound beautiful, clean
>and in tune. When you consider that they cannot possibly be all using the
>same vibrato rate, be absolutely in phase, and at the same time be
>absolutely in tune, there is a melding (or is it melting) of tone which
>gives us the impression that they are playing a warm intune sound (we
>don't even notice the vibrato).
>
>Since Phil and I did 11 pianos within the 4 hour alloted time, this
>averages 43.6 minutes for each piano. Admittedly these tunings were not
>the kind we would be proud of. We might even be embarrassed to listen to
>them in the presence of another tuner. We could easily pick them to pieces
>if we listened to them individually. We would probably conclude that each of
>these really needs a good tuning still. However, the ensemble effect has
>saved us in this situation.
>
>I do not think that situations like this should exist. Those who plan these
>gala affairs should plan time for the tuners. Those who rent and tune for
>these affairs should plan ahead and work their plan. A technician has every
>right to walk away from being involved in a pressure attack like this.
>On the other hand, there may be times in your future where you may be called
>upon to rescue the perishing and care for the dying. If you are a compulsive
>rescuer and find satisfaction in this, you may also find some direction from
>this article in how to approach the situation.
>
>Jim Coleman, Sr.


Charles K. Ball, RPT
School of Music
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX 78712
512-467-1535
mailto:ckball@mail.utexas.edu