Pulling up the pin on S&S - "and thats it"- tunings

[David Love]

I don't know if that's what they meant but I would agree that's wrong.  With
Steinway uprights the pin is so flexible that if the hammer is past the
12:00 position the pin tends to flex downward when you are pulling up the
pitch.  That means you must settle the pin with an upward and backward
motion or it will drift sharp.  That's awkward and counterintuitive for most
people.  The better pin technique, I've found, on those pianos is to make
sure the hammer is at or just short of 12:00 so that moving the pin to raise
the pitch lifts the pin or at least doesn't flex it downward.  That way,
when you go to settle things you do it downward and backward to settle the
pin and remove and twisting.  It's a bit easier and more instinctive.  If I
ever learned to tune left handed (which I haven't and is hopeless at this
point) it would probably be easier that way.  Lubricating at the pressure
and bearing bar also helps as has been described.

David Love
davidlovepianos at comcast.net
www.davidlovepianos.com

 

In a message dated 1/23/2008 8:01:12 PM Eastern Standard Time,
diggeray at comcast.net writes:
Greetings, 
 
         I have been told to just pull them up and thats it. WWwheLLL!.....,
that seems to me, like a cheap rip off tuning, and doing that doesnt settle
the pin correctly. The tuning should last the customer.
Is that it?
Is that where I am going wrong on this whole ordeal? Am I trying to settle
pins that are not meant to be settled? I am talking about grands here as
well as the K'$.