bad tech puzzler

[Joe And Penny Goss]

Hi Tom,
They most likely got exactly what they paid for. The lowest bidder.
Joe Goss
imatunr@srvinet.com
www.mothergoosetools.com
----- Original Message -----
From: <Tvak@AOL.COM>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, March 29, 2002 8:50 PM
Subject: bad tech puzzler


> I've seen some pretty strange things the last couple of days.  Tuned a
> Steinway A the other day.  A#0 had a replacement hammer that belonged in
the
> 7th octave.  No wonder it didn't sound like it's neighbors!  The rest of
the
> hammers were filed so poorly that the guy must have been drunk.  There
wasn't
> a level surface to be seen on any hammer, every one angled down left or
down
> right.  Then I noticed the strings on F6 were crossed on the pin side of
the
> capo bar.  The left string crossed over to the center tuning pin, and vice
> versa.
>
> Then tonight I played at a restaurant and was told that the piano was just
> tuned yesterday.  There wasn't a unison on the instrument.  (Some were
pretty
> close...some weren't!)  I looked inside and I saw a mute sticking in
between
> two strings on a trichord unison (I use the term loosely).  So I figured
it
> must be a new string, muting out the left and center strings so that they
> wouldn't drift out of tune.  At the end of the night, when the last table
had
> left, I looked at the string and noticed that it wasn't new.  So I took
out
> the mute and found the outer two strings were in tune, but the center one
was
> SHARP!
>
> Why would someone mute out the left and center strings on a trichord (not
a
> new string) and leave only one string sounding?
>
> I did tune the center (sharp) string and there was no inharmonicity or
other
> problem.  It tuned up just fine.  The pin wasn't loose.  Everything seemed
> just fine, but for some reason the guy muted it and it's left neighbor.
>
> Could there be a rational reason for this?
>
> Tom Sivak
>