A Case Study

[Joe & Penny Goss]

Richard ,
Stick to your guns !
This brings up a question that has always been a gnawing in the recesses of
my mind. To make a remedy could one measure the strings to each side for
their inharmonisity then find out which string was the worst and change the
winding length to try to match the two strings. Or change one to match the
other?
One trick that you can use in a pinch is to place a rubber mute between the
worst string and its neighbor above or below the windings. This will
somewhat deaden that note but will also cut the mismatch of the upper
partials.
Joe Goss
----- Original Message -----
From: Richard Brekne <richardb@c2i.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 12, 2000 10:47 AM
Subject: A Case Study


> Yesterday I had an experience I just had to share with you all. We've
> been on about this buisness of when to say no several times lately and
> this relates to that.
>
> I was on my way home late afternoon when my mobil (cellular) rang. A
> local sound studio was to have a recording with one of the national TV
> stations later that evening and needed the piano tuned.
>
> Just a week earlier I had been in there with some players from the
> Conservatory and a visiting ragtime pianist from England. A nice brand
> new Yamaha U1 had been rented for the occasion and I tuned it for the
> session. I had suggested earlier on to the fellow responsible for
> arranging the session that he rent at least this much quality as I knew
> this particular studio had no piano of their own and usually had on loan
> some beater.
>
> Indeed this was the case last week, a 25 year old 110 Røsler (Czech,
> petrof variant). Beat to sh--, horrible bass, unbelievable wear on the
> Hammers.. etc. etc. ad absurdum. Now this sound studio has Mercedes
> solutions when it comes to almost everything, except the piano, and I
> have been on about this with them for over a year now, trying patiently
> to inform them that it was very bad tactics to keep using wrecks for
> pianos.
>
> Anyways, so I go in yesterday for this "very important" recording
> session, and sure enough they are going to use this Røsler. I just shook
> my head, tried once again to tell the guy how idiotic this was, but
> proceeded to tune the piano as best as was possible. I must say I did
> quite a fine job of it as well... as far as was possible in anycase.
>
> As I said... the bass on this piano was horrible... several bad string
> pars.. and in particular C2 which was so far out of wack that no matter
> what you did it sounded both horribly flat and horribly sharp at the
> same time. Lets put it this way... if you tuned C2-C3 as a 2:1 ,, the
> 4:2 was beating at around 6 bps. I kid you not. Lets not even think
> about the higher coincidents yet.  Tuning as a 4:2  was appropriate for
> keeping 3rds and 10ths in line with neighbors, but yeilded the most
> ridiculous blending of sounding both sharp and flat at the same time.
> Tuning to a higher coincedent just sounded awfully awfully flat.. and
> ruined the progression of 3rds and 10ths... Nothing to do... I ended up
> with something between a 4:2 and a 2:1 so that my 3rds and 10ths were
> acceptable, and the octave sounded least bad otherwise.
>
> After nearly two hours of trying to make this thing sound at least
> something like a piano, I finally called it a nite and after one more
> round of this time a bit more firm admonishing about the shamefullness
> of putting this thing in front of serious musicians, I went home.
>
> Two hours later this fellow has the gaul to call me (now nearly 8PM) and
> says the piano is out of tune in the bass and wants me to come back (for
> free cuz it was obviously my fault) to fix it. He went on to inform me
> that he noticed it right away after I had left and wanted to know if I
> thought the piano was in tune when I left. I replied with...
>
> "wait a second... you say you noticed this 2 hours ago, on the evening
> of a recording session, and you wait til now to call me ????? ".  I also
> informed him in no so uncertain terms that the piano was well tuned for
> what it was, and that it was high time he realized that as long as he
> insisted on using such garbage he should expect less then satisfactory
> sound, and that he needed to wake up and buy himself a decent instrument
> appropriate to his needs and stop calling piano techs at nite with
> accusations and tales of catastrophy.  In short... I simply refused to
> go back.
>
> A bit of background before you comment... I am one of 5 different tuners
> this guy has done basically the same with. I have talked with the others
> and they are of same mind, that they are sick and tired of this fellow,
> and wont have anything more to do with him. All have said to him for
> some time now, that he needs a decent piano for his kinda work and he
> always shines us on about it. And all of us have heard comments from him
> about the "poor quality of piano technicians" here in western Norway.
> Also one last thing.. this is the only complaint I personally have had
> in the last 5 years.
>
> So you tell me.... time to draw the line or what ??
>
> --
> Richard Brekne
> Associate PTG, N.P.T.F.
> Bergen, Norway
>
>
>
>