Duplex tuning times

[David M. Porritt]

Ron:

Thanks for your reply, and for all the work you are doing on
"marginal things ... when trying to push the boundaries of 'what's
achievable'"

dave

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 11/10/01 at 11:12 AM Ron Overs wrote:

>Dave,
>
>You wrote;
>
>>Someone might have already asked this question and I missed it, but
>>at the risk of repetition, How long does it take to tune a piano
for
>>a concert and also do the massaging of the duplex lengths and
>>speaking lengths to tune the duplex area?  It seems to me that this
>>could easily double the time spent, consequently doubling the cost
to
>>the customer.  This for a benefit that the protagonists claim is
>>small, and the antagonists claim doesn't exist. 
>>
>>Am I missing something here?
>
>No one has asked as far as I know. Yes it does take longer to tune a

>piano when the rear duplexes are tuned - and I do mean tuned here, 
>and not just tapping the duplex blocks around to create a bit of
back 
>scale havoc. However, it doesn't take quite so long as you might 
>imagine, since only the top two string sections have a tuned rear 
>duplex. We braid off the back scales for the other sections. 
>Furthermore, you tend to get quite a few a 'freebies' when tuning
the 
>backs. Since the hammers are not striking the duplexes, they will 
>therefore tend to be a bit more tuning stable than the speaking 
>lengths in many cases where the climate is controlled.
>
>Since the claimed benefits are small as you say, I couldn't image a 
>situation where for every tuning the duplexes would be tuned. At
this 
>time, we only do it for selected recording and concert pianos. Since

>these pianos are kept in good condition, and are housed in venues 
>where the temperature and humidity is controlled, tuning stability
is 
>not a problem. Therefore, in these cases it is possible to tune both

>the duplexes and speaking lengths without going too far overboard.
>
>To be frank Dave, I still regard this stuff as pretty marginal also.

>But we do marginal things don't we when trying to push the
boundaries 
>of 'what's achievable'. Today's experimentation will occasionally 
>become tomorrow's default standard.
>
>Regards,
>
>Ron O
>-- 
>Overs Pianos
>Sydney Australia
>________________________
>
>Web site: http://www.overspianos.com.au
>Email:     mailto:ron@overspianos.com.au
>________________________


_____________________________
David M. Porritt
dporritt@mail.smu.edu
Meadows School of the Arts
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX 75275
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