Mason & Hamlin Screwstringer

[J Patrick Draine]

Tom,
"Just tune it." No reason to drop the pitch below the target pitch,
unless it's already radically over A-440. And as the instructions
suggest, don't overshoot your target either. Yes, there will be
unaccustomed "creep" beyond your target, but just forge forward, then
come back and fine tune it. Different technique, ancient instrument,
no reason to kick yourself if the unisons aren't amazingly pure.
When you next return to the piano (6 months? 6 years?) you'll be
surprised by how little it has drifted from where you left it.
Patrick Draine

On 5/15/07, Thomas Cole <tcole at cruzio.com> wrote:
>
>  I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later (in this case later!), an
> 1890 screwstringer upright. The owner dearly loves the tone, in spite of its
> original condition, and it just needs to be tuned. Never having accomplished
> such a feat, I was at a loss to tune or stabilize the tuning, in spite of
> the instructions on the tuning key holder (Tuning is accomplished by
> approaching from below, and Whanging on the key makes it go sharp - words to
> that effect).
>
>  The strings weren't especially rusty, just a little dark. I applied Liquid
> Wrench to the bearing points, dropped the pitch and brought it above pitch
> to gain some lubricity but, alas, not much help. After 1-1/2 hours of
> twisting and whanging, I got about an octave's worth to sound like they
> needed to be tuned.
>
>  Reminds me of an old Studebaker I drove once that had a huge amount of play
> in the steering gear. It was uncontrollable. Is there any way to tune this
> thing? I thought of reducing the offset at the "V" bar by backing off on the
> pressure bar screws to reduce friction. But how much? Is that advisable?
>
>  Tom Cole
>