tuning anomaly

[Ron Nossaman]

This morning, I tuned a Baldwin K (about a 6'? grand) in a 
high school. Rebuilt (good job) about 20 years ago, and I'd 
last tuned it in March this year at about 30%RH. It was at 
65%RH today, so I expected the usual 20 cents sharp in the low 
tenor, with the rest not that far off. Wrong! It was about 6 
beats sharp at A-4, tapering down to about 1 beat at A-0, with 
no real discontinuity across the bass/tenor break. Strange. 
 From A-4 it went up to about 8 beats sharp at the strut, and 
about 12 beats sharp at the next strut, tapering back down to 
about 2 beats sharp at C-8. Again, the beat rates progressed 
smoothly, even across the struts. It's like it had been tuned 
that sharp intentionally. Now the fun part. Going from about 8 
beats sharp at G-5, G#-5 to C-6 were all close to 3 semitones 
low, with C#-6 going right back to the 8 beats sharp plan!! No 
detectable gremlins other than the tuning.

I asked the guy when he came in to frisk everyone and 
confiscate that tuning hammer, and he swore up and down that 
nobody had touched it, and it had just gone out like that. 
Right. Hello, I'm Babbakazoo!

The other three pianos were typical, so I wasn't just having a 
*really* bad day when I tuned them in March, or at least not 
all day.

Tomorrow morning, I get to drive an hour to look at a Steinway 
D with reported tonal problems in octave 5-6. Gonna need more CA.

Ron N