Harpsichord Tuning Info.

[Porritt, David]

Barbara:

You're right.  Here there is a fairly knowledgeable harpsichord person 40 miles away but he is first and foremost an organ technician.  I tune our harpsichords, replace plectra and try to keep the voicing relatively smooth.  One of our instruments needs a rebuilding job and I'll not do it because I'm not qualified.  There's even piano work that I don't do generally.  What we decide to do or not do is not that difficult if we just borrow from the medical profession their "First, do no harm" mantra.  Of course that also requires a fairly honest understanding of our own skills and limitations.

dp

David M. Porritt, RPT
dporritt at smu.edu


-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Barbara Richmond
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2007 8:54 AM
To: Pianotech List
Subject: Re: Harpsichord Tuning Info.

I'm in there and understand Anne's point.  But some of us have to provide
service because there is no one else around.  As I was putting one church's
harpsichord in playing order for a Messiah performance, I was told that a
local university sold their harpsichord because their piano technician(s)
refused to service it.  They use an electonic keyboard, instead.  I could
hardly
believe my ears--first, that a techncian would be unwilling to provide
necessary service to an institution (I mean, really, it's part of the job)
and
second, that the university would would be bullied so.

If I could find some room in my house and clone myself so I'd have time to
do the work, I'd like to find one of those unfinished or repairable Z boxes
out there that someone would like to unload (for free, of course).

Barbara Richmond, RPT
near Peoria, Illinois

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Conrad Hoffsommer" <hoffsoco at luther.edu>
To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2007 7:21 AM
Subject: Re: Harpsichord Tuning Info.


> Conrad Hoffsommer wrote:
>> Richard Brekne wrote:
>>> I'm curious.
>>>
>>> How many of you who dabble a bit in Harpsichord / Cembalo work do any
>>> voicing or regulation work  on them ?
>>>
>>> RicB
>>
>>
>> Well, I dabble a bit.  In fact, the clavecin is one of the items on my
>> resume which got me this college job.  Orgel didn't hurt, either.
>
>
> Just came back from doing the first pass on one of the doubles (Z-French
> double), here. Hadn't been tuned since May.
>
> Typical for that interval over a wet summer (and still wet fall).
> - One string in bottom octave of 4' broken.
> - 8' A4 @ 456Hz
> - 8' A5 @ 460Hz
> - 8' A6 @ 470Hz(highest I could measure on my Korg)
> - 4' A6 @ +125¢
>
>
>
> Back to plinking...
> -- 
> Conrad Hoffsommer - Keyboard Technician
> Luther College, 700 College Dr., Decorah, Iowa 52101-1045
> 1-(563)-387-1204 // Fax 1-(563)-387-1076
>
> - There comes a time in every man's life and I've had plenty of them.
> - Casey Stengel