Concert Tuning & Prep Sequence

[Don]

Hi Andrew,

How many dollars to do all of this work? Perhaps Rick needs to ask if there
is a budget?

At 02:47 PM 5/10/2006 -0500, you wrote:
>Rick,
>If this piano hasn't been tuned in years you should plan on a multi 
>step plan to get it up to pitch.  Here is what works well for me:
>	1: Do an overpull pitch correction pass with individual unisons 
>reasonably close to each other.
>	2: Voice the rear string terminations and bearings.  You will be 
>surprise how many loose hitch pin loops and crooked string paths 
>you 	find going forward to the bridge.  Then tighten the curve 
>leading forward to the rear bridge pin.  Then tighten the curve 
>leading away from 	the front bridge pin.  (In the conjectured 
>possibility that a string has climbed up a bridge pin, it will be put 
>back down on the bridge 	without hammering necessary.) Most likely 
>you have pulled the old curve into the speaking length and pushing a 
>little way out into the 	speaking length will help to ease it and 
>reduce noise.  This will drop the pitch significantly (20-30 cents on 
>a D that was only 15 cents 	flat when I came to it.)
>	2a: If you are getting lots of false beating after this in the 
>treble there may be loose bridge pins.  Some ultra-thin CA applied to 
>the 	base of each bridge pin in the treble sections will help a lot 
>and may push pitch up a little (why I can only conjecture).  Do this 
>before 	three if you think it is needed.
>	3. Do another overpull pitch correction pass with good unisons.
>	4. Lift and level all the strings in the agraffe section (don't 
>overdo this and groove the brass).  Tighten the curve leading to the 
>bearing on 	the front duplex.  Lift on the back side 	of the capo and 
>then on the front side.  Level any strings that don't end up level 
>after lifting
>	5. Fine tune the piano, some unisons will have slipped with leveling.
>This procedure is what I routinely do for a significant 
>pitch-correction on a grand piano.  It fills in most of the "wells" 
>of instability.  I then get into the action checking for bedding and 
>then regulate everything.  I usually lube the hammer knuckles with 
>micro-fine teflon.  Pianists really seem to notice and appreciate the 
>reduced friction at the knuckle.  Of-course there is the 
>psycho-acoustic affect going on too... ;-)  A little sugar coating on 
>the hammers, was that a C7? maybe more than a little...and you're 
>good to go.  Depending on how solid the piano is (pin-block, bridge, 
>board, beams and case squirming around under a few more tons of 
>tension than before) you will probably have only a fine-tuning to do 
>the next day.  Yamahas are usually quite solid.
>
>Good luck, and do tell how it went.
>
>Andrew Anderson
>
>
>
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Regards,
Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.P.T.
Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat

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