At 11:46 PM 3/19/2002 -0500, you wrote: >Hi Mickey, > Being relatively new to this profession myself, I'm sure some of the >others on the list will probably have better advice than me, but I will tell >you what helps me in some of the situations you mention. ><snip> >place. Now while pounding mf or louder, "flex" the pin without actually >turning it, both up and down, slowly, while listening for that crisp clean >ringing tone. You will get to a point where you "know" that there is >someplace within this up and down flexing that the unison sounds better. I'd like to clarify this point, if I may; 'flexing up & down' does not mean bending the pin up-down or forwards-back. flexing is feeling the twist (torsion) in the pin. Setting the pin. >There is a certain amount of "feel" involved here, as when you flex the pin >and the pitch seems right, are you up above or down below the mid point of >flex. You should have a fair amount of resistance as you're pushing down >when the pitch is right. If not, you need to turn the pin just a hair more >sharp, and then flex to find the sweet spot again, all the while checking >for a fair amount of torsion as you're pushing down. You also don't want the >pin "pulling" on the string when it's at pitch. What you do want is the >string pulling the pin at the correct torsion. Just try to get the string >at pitch around the mid-point of the up and down flexing. If you don't have >this torsion, it probably isn't going to stay in tune, as the pin and string >are not set. When setting the pin, the last small adjustment should be in the upwards direction. It was demonstrated that if you lower the tension to pitch, the string segment between the pin and counter bearing bar is lower than the speaking length and will cause the tuning to slip. However if you raise the tension to pitch, this segment is higher and will not creep. Setting the string. Some Aeolian Chickering grands have to be tuned by only raising. The angle and friction between the v-bar and counter bearing bar are so high that there is no finesse in flexing the torsion of the pin. Pull it to pitch and move on, speed counts; you can tune it in record time and it won't sound any worse than if you spent all day on it. Try tuning a spinet quickly, you'll wonder why you've been torturing yourself. Regards, Jon Page, piano technician Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass. mailto:jonpage@attbi.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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