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Finished regulating the dampers and the rest of the action on Andy's Lester spinet which had new dampers installed last week. Tuned it the best I could in the time I had. There could be a few bugs left in it but the repetition speed has to be experienced to believe! There were three or four geometry problems to solve but once they were, the action is as responsive as any piano action could ever be.

Not an easy piano to tune. A lot of false beats in the treble and a lot of inharmonicity throughout. The Bass sounds sharp no matter what you do.

I used a technique for the spoon adjustment I learned over 30 years ago from a film shown at a PTG Chapter meeting. No way could I ever get the tool made for that to work. Glad I know the alternative.

I took a picture of my work by a video camera recently. I often notice.
Could you give me any advice ?
my work

Tuned a Kawai RX-3 for a choir concert at a high school then drove 100 miles to a north Milwaukee suburb to tune a superbly restored Steinway model A. Both at A-440, by the way. Now, wouldn't a piano tuned for a choir have to be in ET? Not according to that choir director who has used me exclusively for about 10 years. There is another one at a high school 45 miles away that has tried all the others and has used me exclusively since 2006.

Wouldn't there be a technician in the Milwaukee area good enough to take care of a fine Steinway grand? Of course but that customer is willing to pay double fee for me and only me to go there. There must be something worth slightly more than a darn about what I know how to do. These people can "tell" and they do tell other people and it is what keeps me going.

Ryan,

30 years later, I would not remember the title of the film or the company that made it but it was about damper regulation and showed how to make compound bends. and regulate spoons.

The spoon regulation idea is simple. Find one key where the spoon is already properly adjusted or do whatever you have to to get perhaps an end key right, such as tilting the action back, using a damper wire bender to adjust the spoon or use any other technique you may know. Mark or take note of which wippen that is. Remove the action and place it in a cradle or set it on a table or bench. Find a wedge of wood about the same size as a mute. Lift the damper rod and place the wedge under it until the marked wippen moves both the hammer and damper at the same time. Now, you can adjust all the rest of the spoons easily by bending the spoons fore or aft with a damper wire bending tool in about 5 minutes. Simply adjust the spoons so that all of the wippens make the hammer and damper move simultaneously.

For me, this was the tip of the Century because I could never figure out how to make one of those cock-eyed spoon bender tools work, not even for a single spoon! My hats off to anyone who can!

I took a picture of my work by a video camera recently. I often notice.
Could you give me any advice ?
my work

I did not go that far through the video; he was still tuning. But if the result was not ET, regardless of the type of error, then he should try Dr. White's method!

I noticed that with the sequence he chose, the first RBI was a m3 instead of a M6. He did not listen to it anyway. In fact there where many RBIs that became available that he did not listen to, primarily the M6s and the m3s. Then it seemed he was trying to polish the temperament with the SBIs before confirming it with the RBIs. That is asking for trouble.

With two SBIs sharing a common note, the 4th should beat a hair faster than the 5th, and none should stick out from thier neighbors. But care must be taken to deterimine where the error is by listening to the RBIs. The two SBIs can even be in the correct relationship to each other, but all three notes be incorrect in relationship to other notes.

.....

If anyone ever doubted what I have always said about 4ths & 5ths tuners usually ending up with Reverse Well rather than ET, then you should watch this video. It shows exactly why and how it happens and that there is no way out of it.

Went to a military band concert last night. As the oboe played the tuning note I wondered if they tuned to A or Bb. Then she played another tuning note one semi-tone higher. Ah, how democratic. They tune to both!

I took a picture of my work by a video camera recently. I often notice.
Could you give me any advice ?
my work