To tune or not to tune?

[Stephen Airy]

I tuned my 88-year-old Ricca & Son and it seems to be
doing OK.  Since then I've broken a string at each
(both) end(s) of the bass bridge, and the bass bridge
has some small cracks around the bridge pins.

Also I took off the bass strings and cleaned them one
by one, replacing them on the pins and twisting them,
which loosened the pins a bit, but it still seems to
hold its tune somewhat.  I tuned it about 3 weeks ago
and it will probably be due in maybe less than 5 weeks
for another tuning (I'm pretty sure it's my
inexperienced hammer / pin setting technique).

--- Jon Page <jonpage@mediaone.net> wrote:
> 
> >At 10:41 PM 4/4/01 -0400, you wrote:
> > >This week (and it's only Thursday) I have been
> called out to tune three
> > >un-tunable (upright) pianos which the owners
> indicated on the phone  were
> > >tunable, even though they were 80 to 100 years
> old.  When I arrived at the
> > >homes, the pianos were wrecks with the expected
> rust, corrosion, and rot.
> > >To these owners, a tuning meant a rebuild.  In
> each case, I left without
> > >tuning.  How can I avoid this in the future?  Is
> there a number of years-old
> > >that you will not go out for a tuning?  How do I 
> weed out the tunable
> > >pianos from the un-tunable pianos on the phone?
> > >
> > >Phil Ryan
> > >Miami Beach, FL
> 
> 
> Phil,
> I hate to break this to you... it's only Wednesday. 
> There's three more 
> tomorrow...
> 
> Look on the bright side, you gained a day.
> 
> 
> 
> Jon Page,   piano technician
> Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass.
> mailto:jonpage@mediaone.net
> http://www.stanwoodpiano.com
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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