Strip Muting/unisons/NZ climate

[Graeme Harvey]

Hi Bill,

I will give sticker cloth a go and try the whole step technique when I get
some time to play around with it.

I find 6 to 7 pianos plenty and best if in one location to avoid too much
travel.
If doing private tunings and travelling I tend to stick to 4 or 5.

In our climate there isn't the need to pitch adjust the regularly tuned
pianos, by this I mean instruments that get serviced at least each year. I
have almost completed the high school pianos I do yearly and the pitch on
most is within a few cents with the better pianos sometimes at pitch. It's
hard for me to visualise the climate extremes some of you contend with, and
3 or 4 tunings per year with a pitch adjustment each time.
I suppose it is good for business. Perhaps you only need a half or third of
the customers I need to make the same amount.
I went out to a piano a few days ago that I last tuned in 1997 and it was at
A440 and required only a fine tune -mainly unisons etc. This is not quite
the norm but I suppose our climate helps.

We have a fairly humid climate ranging from about 50%RH to 70%RH and
occasional extremes each side. We never see the humidity drop much under
45%RH. The temperature range is even less 8 c to 12 c winter and  18c to 24c
in summer, again with some extremes each side. Quite temperate.
We do see action sticking problems and do alot of repinning action centres
but rarely need to repair soundboards. Virtually no-one here has
airconditioning and few have central heating.

Regards,

Graeme Harvey
New Plymouth NZ

> I have used what Schaff Piano Supply sells as "Abstract or Sticker Cloth"
for
> some 20 years.  The "Temperament Strip" felt that they sell for that
purpose
> wears out in about a month.  The cloth lasts for 2-3 years and literally
> thousands of tunings.  The felt also has a tendency to bunch up and damp
the
> string I want to hear.  The cloth is a bit stiff when new but breaks in
> fairly quickly and gives a remarkably long period of usefulness.
>
> I use 3 strips. Two of them are about 2 1/2 feet long and untrimmed.  The
> other is about 3 1/2 feet long and has a tapered end of about 1 1/2 feet.
> That tapered end is for the middle section of a vertical.  In a vertical,
I
> use only two of the strips.  In a grand, the longs strip's tapered end is
> used in the high treble.
>
> Even though I tune up in whole steps.  I pull the strip out chromatically
and
> descending while I tune the right hand string of each unison.  Then I tune
> the left hand string up and down in whole steps.  I find these other
patterns
> that people use interesting, however.
>
> To me, strip muting and the programs that I have stored in the SAT make it
> possible to tune 4-6 pianos a day and not get stressed out. Later this
month,
> there is a day where I will have to tune 9 pianos at a school for solo and
> ensemble contests.  Each piano will be tuned twice, one rough tuning, one
> fine tuning and will end up at standard pitch.  I may well have to do
other
> prep than tuning, too.  I'll make some very good money that day but it
will
> certainly be at about the limit of what I can do and I wouldn't want to do
> that many every day.
>
> Regards,
>
> Bill Bremmer RPT
> Madison, Wisconsin
>