[pianotech] Another Cruise Ship Piano Tuning Question

[Dean May]

Hi Terry

I've noticed that phenomenon cropping up also on pianos that are regularly
tuned. I attributed it to the differing lengths in the front scale and
backscale. It's the only thing that made any sense to me. 

But I'm probably wrong. Again. 

Tuning cruise ships sounds awfully exotic. Do you ever get free tickets?

Dean

Dean W May                (812) 235-5272

PianoRebuilders.com    (888) DEAN-MAY

Terre Haute IN 47802


-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Terry Farrell
Sent: Sunday, February 14, 2010 8:21 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: [pianotech] Another Cruise Ship Piano Tuning Question

I have about 18 Yamaha C3s I tune on three cruise ships. Most of these  
pianos are played every day for several hours. I see them every two  
weeks. Each one gets a pretty thorough tuning every six weeks or so -  
the other visits they will get some level of touch-up. The environment  
on these 1,000-foot-long, ten story ships is VERY stable as there are  
very few doors and windows opening to the outside and the AC runs 24/7.

When I come to each piano, it will have been reasonably well tuned two  
weeks prior. With respect to unisons, I'll typically see (well,  
hear...) one string out of every six or so half-steps beating and more  
whining a bit. What I find 95+% of the time is that if the pitch of a  
string has moved at all, the right string has gone a little bit sharp  
and the left string has gone maybe twice that amount flat. I'll be  
like that on virtually every single note that is making some noise.

What on earth would cause such a phenomenon?

Terry Farrell
Port-of-Tampa

PS:  For any of you with tooooo much time on your hands, you can see  
my cruise ship (Carnival Legend was today) at the Port of Tampa on  
live streaming video - the cam is mounted atop the county building  
downtown Tampa. Go to  http://cam01.hillsboroughcounty.org/user/JViewer.html

   and click on "Control" and click about a quarter inch away from the  
upper left hand corner of the grey mesh area that appears after you  
get control of the camera. Way cool, IMHO. The ship was late today and  
I could simply periodically check my computer to look at this webcam  
to see when the ship was approaching!