Steinway vs. The Tuner, Round One

[John M. Formsma]

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Alan,

When I was a beginning tuner, I had trouble with S&S. It just takes more
experience. Once you have experience with them, it's no problem.

I use a smooth pull lever technique. I've also used the jerk technique, but
I like the smooth better overall and think it is much better for those
pianos with tight pins and flagpoling tendencies. The trick is learning to
feel the tiny movements of the pin in the block. You can't just introduce
flex or "twist" into the pin, which is what was happening when the pitch
went sharp and then flat. You must go beyond hearing the pitch move and also
feel the pin move the smallest amount. Once the pin moves, then you can take
the "twist" out of the pin by manipulating your lever without moving the pin
in the block. It's a physics thing happening--if the pin moves and you
remove the twist, it has to be at least some different than it was
originally.

Keep at it, and it will come. Happened to me, too. :-)

John M. Formsma
Blue Mountain, MS


  -----Original Message-----
  From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org]On
Behalf Of Alan R. Barnard
  Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2002 7:16 PM
  To: pianotech@ptg.org
  Subject: Steinway vs. The Tuner, Round One


  I don't have a lot of S&S experience (in the Ozarks? Gimme a break!) but I
do tune a few.

  Tuned an "L" infantile horizontal piano today and got thinking while
wrestling with it. Pinblock quite tight (somewhat jumpy pins), string
movement resistance quite high, and the collarless pins VERY sensitive to
pressure in any direction--up pitch, down pitch, flagpoling, whatever.

  I find many notes very hard to pull in for sweet unisons. I was personally
taught by Randy Potter how to tune stable strings & pins but found that
moving the pin in teeny notches is very hard--too high, too low, too high
...

  If I got it just a hair over pitch and tried to settle everything with
back pressure on the hammer, it dropped way too much. Finally, with time
running out and getting a little desperate, I started dropping pitch (about
a 45 degree turn of the hammer) and tuning "from the bottom" with a smooth
steady pull while wanging the string pretty hard. Most of the time I could
stop right on pitch --even on strings I had spent WAY too long trying to
tune the "normal" way.

  But I worry about how stable they are as I could not "set" the pin in the
usual way.

  Is this pretty typical Steinway?

  What about stability in these circumstances?

  What hammer techniques do y'all use on the beasts?

  NOTE: While tuning, I was rehearsing a pretty negative inner dialog about
Steinway and all of their "genuine Steinway parts;" thinking how expensive
they are and how much they look like every other piano, etc. BUT after I
tuned it, I played it. Even for a small piano, what a beautiful, sweet
sound. Oh, the subtleties ...

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