May Their Practice rooms be filled with 1098's

[Kevin E. Ramsey RPT]

Thanks Ron, I'm the one who posted the "zoom" note. I really don't believe
that I was springing the pin down as I was tuning it. I had just the same
amount of trouble trying to knock it down after I got it a little sharp;
wouldn't go, wouldn't go........Zing!!!!!!!  It really went that time! I'll
remember your technique next time I approach one of these, though.
    Last week, I went up to Flagstaff to do some tuning for NAU, their
regular guy was ill, and before I went, I asked them;"Do you have a bunch of
Steinway uprights?"  They said no, mostly Yamaha's and Boston's,.......so I
said, sure!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Nossaman" <RNossaman@KSCABLE.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, December 04, 2000 9:00 AM
Subject: Re: May Their Practice rooms be filled with 1098's


> >    OK, in my experience, as you're trying to bring a string up to pitch,
it
> >doesn't seem to want to go, in spite of the obvious movement of the pin
in
> >the block. Then,,,,,zoom! the string finally renders,,,,,,,right past
where
> >you wished it would go. I have often wondered if the pressure bar isn't
too
> >low or something.  Anybody care to give their imput? Believe me, I'd like
> >nothing more than to be able to easily tune these things, but after
tuning
> >three or four in practice rooms, I'm done for the day. As opposed to
being
> >able to tune twice as many Yamaha's or Kawai's.
>
> I haven't had any to deal with on a regular basis until recently, so I'm
> anything but an authoritative opinion, but it seems to me it's the other
> way. The strings seem to me to render too easily, at least on the new
ones.
> Hammer position and technique do make a tremendous difference for me. I
> found that pulling from anything past about 1:00 o'clock on those terribly
> tight pins sprung the pin down enough that, even though I was taking up
> string, the pitch stayed nearly the same or even dropped some. Then, when
I
> let up on the hammer, the pin sprung back up and pulled the string sharp.
> Pushing BACK on the hammer somewhat as I turned the pin helped too, with
> the hammer at 12:00. The toughest part for me is finding the equilibrium
> point where the string tension balances the back torque and flagpole pull
> of the pin so the note will stay where I put it. Just pulling the tip off
> of the pin is too often enough to disturb the tuning. I have the best luck
> at the 11-12 o'clock position, intentionally flagpoling the pin back and
> forth after turning it to position, to determine where the equilibrium
> point is, then rotating the pin to center it. I do something very similar
> with any other tuning, as I expect you all do, but I have to pay more
> attention and spend more time with these. They do sound pretty good when
> you finally get them tuned, but it does seem like unnecessary abuse to get
> that done.
>
> My take,
>
> Ron N
>