Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Upright Capo Bar Obstructs Muting

Recently I tuned a Wissner Artist Grand Upright equipped with a "Suspension Bridge Capo Bar". While the soundboard was cutaway behind the bar to allow mutes to be inserted straight through the strings, around C5 or so there was so little room between the hammers and the capo bar I couldn't even fit 1/4" treble mutes. I ended up pulling the action and playing the strings by hand to finish the tuning to the high treble. The owner was understanding. but I wonder if there are special mutes for such tight places. Are the special treble mutes in the Schaff catslog useful here?

Papps mute. It fits between the hammers and bridge.

Yes, and when you get the Papps mute fiddle with it a bit at home so that you see how it works. It's effective but not instinctive. I wouldn't have been able to manage without one.

Pulling the action to finish tuning the treble? :facepalm: Was this a paying customer?

Pianos are tuned every day without papps mutes.

A 1/4" wide rubber mute works just fine. Lift the damper, insert the mute between the strings where the upper part of the damper rests with the handle pointing up and to the right, and tune away.

Pianos are tuned every day without rubber mutes.

A papps mute works just fine. You don't need to lift the damper. Just insert the mute between the strings and tune away. As for cost,(which is the only drawback I can think of), I've had to buy 2 in 23 years of full time tuning. That's less than a dollar a year.

Besides, the OP stated that a 1/4" wide rubber mute didn't fit.

He was trying to fit the mute between the hammer and the capo bar...

Oh yeah. Man, I over complicated that. Sorry.

The Papps mute did look like a good solution, and might fit between hammer shanks. The 1 /12" deep capo bar blocks any mute trying to come down from above. I think I'll buy all those special mutes, for my next run-in with a backwards capo bar.

@SMHaley, it sounds like you know the answer. I couldn't abandon an upright of such fine tone with the owners' two daughters so eager to begin lessons on it. The customer not only gladly paid me in full, even when I offered a discount, but posted a favorable review. Do you have a Wissner Upright Grand on your customer list? Your brilliant solution to a tricky situation where mutes were totally blocked out would be interesting, if you would kindly cease sitting upon it.

Here's the thing... Tuners with a reasonable amount of experience, or consulting with one that does, would have a solution that wouldn't involve removing the action, and possibly creating more problems. How the heck would you tune a bird cage piano? And there's a heck of a lot more of those running around. I've tuned many an instrument (particularly spinets with a drop action as well as several bird cages) where there is no room for muting between the hammer and capo... Actually lots of uprights are that way. I have no way of knowing your level of experience, but professionals with a certain degree of competency taking money from clients shouldn't need to disassemble the piano to perform tuning. I'm sorry if that seems harsh, but it's just obvious that one needs to be prepared for a multitude of situations when out tuning and servicing. If you can't then perhaps taking on paying gigs is a bit premature until you are. It was nice of them to be so kind, I probably wouldn't have, because, well, some of us know better.

At any rate a picture of the situation would be interesting.