Hello all, I wrote last week about problems I was having muting the outside strings adequately when setting the temperamanet on a 1973 M&H Model 50 (50" upright). In the end, all I needed was thicker temperament strip mute. NONE of three strips I had that were made for the purpose worked well on this piano. So last night, out of curiosity, I measured the thickness of the felt strip I ended up using. It is about 7/32" thick. That seemed unusually thick for a strip mute, from what I've seen & heard from others. But I have virtually no experience (tuning student) so maybe I'm off on that. But anyway, I did determine that the space betweens the unisons was on average around 1/16" greater than on my other piano, a 1921 Bush & Lane, and the three strings of the unisons closer together. So here's my theory. First I note that this piano was made during a period when M&H's current foster parents were a bit on the negligent, just-in-it-for-the-money side, and quality-control was slipshop. Second, I note that the hammers were somewhat indifferently aligned to the strings. Before I got my hands on this piano, some of the strings served only as sympathetic vibrators, the hammer only striking 2 out of 3 strings of some unisons. So I wonder if whoever strung the pianos deliberately spaced the strings closer together to try to keep the number of strings that ended up being missed by the hammers to a minimum. Does that seem plausible? Cheers, Trent Lesher ****** IMPORTANT NOTICE ****** This e-mail, and any attachments hereto, is intended only for use by the addressee(s) named herein and may contain legally privileged and/or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail, and any attachments hereto, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately notify me at (312) 207-1000 and permanently delete the original and any copy of any e-mail and any printout thereof.
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