Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum So, what did you do today?

Ha! I just missed the ferry out of Fulford Harbour and now it is a two hour wait......trying to get home too

Jerry's stuck at an airport and today I arrived in Vienna. My flights were great.

No Jerry, I won't tell you what's going to happen to you in seven hours!

I'm just an amateur, not a technician by any means... but I'm thrilled to say that I finished tuning my Steinway model O today with TuneLab on my Droid Razr phone. The registration key arrived about two minutes after I decided I was done, so I got several breaks last night and today while waiting for the software to time out. (TuneLab has a terrific free demonstration mode: the software functions exactly like the paid version, but it pauses for two minutes after every 14th note to let you consider coughing up the $300 registration fee.)

I noticed that some of the pauses lasted a lot longer than two minutes. It turns out the two-minute clock only runs while the program is in its main tuning screen, so the way to minimize the delays is to leave the device alone and get a glass of water. The incentive to pay for the software increases if you have a hand tremor as I do: more than once I accidentally tapped a corner of the window, causing it to change notes and costing me at least two of my 14 freebees: one to change to the wrong note and one more to move back to the right one.

I've heard dire results from amateurs trying to tune their pianos, and I'm very pleased to say I would not have been disappointed in this tuning if I'd paid someone else to do it. I might have been a little surprised if a paid tuner took 4-1/2 hours to finish the job though!

I let TuneLab generate the inharmonicity curve. Actually I did that twice; the two curves were very similar, and not too different from the Steinway A curve that comes in the software's Samples folder, so I figured I was on the right track.

Turned out to be a 1.5 hour delay. Apparently, the plane had some sort of hydraulic leak???? Or sometime... They flew anyway... We're baaaack home again!!

7 hours??? OHHHH MARTY I GOTTA GOTTA GOTTA GOTTA KNOW! Did you get me a present hmmm? I love presents!!!!

If you didn't............. you get this!

Tuned my 1920s Zimmermann project piano. Lots of false beats in the treble, and hard-to-match partial envelopes in the low bass octaves. Difficult to find progressive intervals across the break - not so much the bridge break, but the scaling break where wound bichords change to plain trichords, 3rd note on the treble bridge... Then tried to eliminate the damper pedal creak by lubricating the damper lift rod with CLP, but to no avail. Then replaced the bushing cloth in the four brackets that receive the rod hangers. The old ones were worn through completely. That did the trick.

The tone is really percussive, loud and short-sustained around the treble break. The soundboard has a short crack (just from one rib to another) right next to the bridge. Time to install that auxiliary rib I've been planning...

Now preparing a present for my son who turns 4 tomorrow.

Wishing all a (belated) blessed and fulfilled new year.

Tuned one existing client school piano, one new client church piano and made 15 cold calls on prospect schools and churches in the area. Always on the hunt for new clients.....

What did I do today? I, am going in to get my Gallbladder removed. Ain't I a lucky dude!??? NOT! Have fun working and making money!

I spent time trying to figure out this "twitter thang"!!

@ronkoval

Ron Koval

My first grader is starting piano lessons today. Makes me think about how important piano teachers are to the manufacturers, maintainers and players of pianos.

Hey let me try!..I have never done a gallbladder before. I am on the gallbladder forum and I think I could get it done...well maybe...perhaps...

If you haven't removed a gall bladder before, I suggest you try removing your own gall bladder first. Once you've removed your own 10 or 20 times, then you can move up to the more important gall bladders.

Tuned my Ibach upright today. (Well, not done yet...)

Ran into problems with CM3s on the temperament octave (F3-A3-C#4-F4-A4), because F3 (the top-most wound bichord) has a mis-match at the 5th partial. Tried to use first the one string for the temperament, then the other. The one put an impossible stretch on the F3-F4 octave, resulting in problems with progressive CM3 beatrates, the other resulted in non-progressive chromatic M3 beatrates... Attempted the temperament three times and walked away in frustration. Methinks this piano needs a different temperament sequence - *sigh*.

maintenance keybooard and hammers on a Yamaha U3 - 10 years old.

A good hammer shaping (more than the yearly shaping done fast)

tightening of front mortises, cleaning, tuning, voicing etc ...

Actually, I would suggest searching Craigslist for free, clunker gallbladders for practice first. Gallbladder whippens can be tricky and equally temperamental.

Can you just move the temperament octave up 1/2 step, taking the wound strings out of play?

temperament between A3 and A4 is in a more secure zone (and oblige you to work with faster beating intervals, it is a good school)

I will give that a try a few times to see how I do. Will post some photos of the process….



Good idea. My wife is always telling me that I have a lot of gall but I keep responding that it won’t be permanent…

Looks like a good job Isaac.



Or start in a different place and make that key the last one tuned. That way it can be moved around a bit to hide the problem somewhat.

I have rarely been satisfied with temperaments that have wound strings involved. They just never seem correct by my ear.

Thanks for the comments.

I suppose I could take the temperament to a higher (and safer) loaction, but at the moment, Bill Bremmer's ET via Marpurg is the only tuning sequence that gives me satisfactory results in an acceptable amount of time. The ladder of CM3s is really a GREAT help. When I started tuning I used SBIs, but always ran into cumulative errors. I also tried sequences based on RBIs, but often have difficulty hearing beats at the correct partial and then counting them. Bill's method really came as a god-send - but unfortunately, it involves F3...

Eric, how would you start a temperament at F#3? (Keeping in mind that I tune from A440 by fork.) I suppose I could tune D4 as a slightly tempered P5 from A4, and then construct a ladder of CM3s: F#3-A#3-D4-F#4-A#4. But then everything would hinge on that first P5?

Today, I visited a new music shop and played on two Pearl River uprights: UP118 and P3. Both impressed me with their touch and sound-for-size, and I was amazed at their pricing (USD 3250 and 4250 respectively). I am sorely tempted to sell my two clunkers and get the UP118...

How far into setting your temperament octave do you come to F3? If it is near the beginning, can you reverse things to make it near the end, or AT the end...and simply tune it as an octave to F4?