Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Tuning advice please

No....I meant "E sounds like F"...everyone can understand that.

Well, if everyone can understand that, why did you need to clear up the confusion?

I disagree about the M&H screw stringer, I think it's a perfectly good system. You simply drop the tension until the pitch changes, then raise it directly up to pitch without stopping or overshooting. Someone (Jim Geiger I think?) brought one to SCRC this year for everyone to try out. Following that procedure I found it tuned up nicely and stayed put through test blows.

If it's still creeping sharp after being tuned that way, perhaps lubricating the bearing points might help?

Hello Cincinnati Kid!

From one Cincinnatian to another we are stubborn as heck. I would recommend that you use " tunelab " APP for android/iPhone. The trial version is free and it's an easy program to use. This APP has an " overpull function" and you want to use that to do a pitch raise. MAKE SURE YOU READ the tunelab manual- it will give you pitch raise instructions.

Don't worry about breaking strings- if it happens it happens. The piano isn't that old 1981?? I live in Cincinnati and I can help you replace a string if it breaks Lol.

Feel free to PM if you like.
-Jon

From what I've read M&H did away with screw stringer because it threatened the livelihood of piano tuners. They were easy to tune in that you could just adjust the screw up to pitch (tuning from the bottom) and then whack the key to make sure the string was set.

-I've never tuned one so I'm just going by what Randy Potter has written about it.

Hello Cincinnati Kid!

From one Cincinnatian to another we are stubborn as heck. I would recommend that you use " tunelab " APP for android/iPhone. The trial version is free and it's an easy program to use. This APP has an " overpull function" and you want to use that to do a pitch raise. MAKE SURE YOU READ the tunelab manual- it will give you pitch raise instructions.

Don't worry about breaking strings- if it happens it happens. The piano isn't that old 1981?? I live in Cincinnati and I can help you replace a string if it breaks Lol.

Feel free to PM if you like.
-Jon

You got a problem?

I doubt is Mason was worried about piano tuners - Everything in manufacturing comes down to cost control. A screw stringer likely cost too much.

Cinci Kid - keep in mind the middle might be a semitone flat, but the high treble is likely to be 2-3 notes flat so expect to go over the high treble more than the middle before it stays at pitch.

Nope. Happy as a clam.

Edit: I liked your third post on this thread. We, even non-technicians, like to nit-pick. It is why we do what we do.

A whole note lasts a whole measure. A whole tone spans a range of pitch comprising two semitones, whose width varies according to the temperament being used by the guitarist. If he tunes pythagorean, for example, then his ET frets are no longer producing 100 cent semitones against another string.

I love nit-picking, and I like being corrected when I'm wrong. It has saved my a*s a few times.

E to F is a semi-tone, or 100 cents. D to E is a whole tone, or 200 cents

There is a difference between nitpicking a subject and nitpicking a person. Of course you could now say, "Hey, that's nitpicking ME!" And if you do, that would show where your real intent is. When someone gets defensive when accused of abuse, they have just proved the point.

Well thanks for all the advice chaps....much appreciated. I'm quite surprised none of you recommended keeping it around a semitone lower and bashing the keys for a bit. Anyhow...what I did was tune the 5 or 6 worse strings that were just way off and I'll hire a tuner in a month or so and in the meantime...I'll bash at the keys a bit but with earmuffs on. Good tip from the poster that said to tune an older (not played in ages) string down before going up....good tip. As mildly interesting aside...I gave a young chap 150 bucks to dismantle the Weber and hike the bits down to the dumpster. Took the kid 8 hrs and had to help the kid on a few hikes. Anyhow ...the large metal frame piece within the piano (name escapes me) it was as wide as the piano, almost as tall and an inch thick cast iron frame that must have weighed in around 300lbs.
Well it hit the bottom of the empty dumpster with a very satisfying crash probably heard in Dayton and surprisingly....shattered into 20 pieces.
Indeed all the interior metal parts were so brittle I could easily snap off sections with my hands.

I agree.

I do have a nit to pick regarding the use of the words 'you' and 'one'. I am guilty, when I am careless (and I use that word correctly), of mixing up the two words. I try to say "If 'one' does x" as opposed to "If 'you' do x". 'One' applies to the general and 'you' applies to the specific. I know we all should try and read between the lines to glean the actual intent, but we sometimes skim and react as if the nit picking is personal.

If I have done that in the past, (and I have), I apologize.

One should not have a nit to pick about one who is nitpicking about one who is picking a nit.

He obviously just meant his piano was a semitone flat.

Kees

Obviously. We are just having a bit of fun. Remember fun?

Nobody I've talked to seems to know for sure -- although I don't think I had heard that explanation yet.

Some other theories:
- Money -- It was probably more costly to manufacture, which might have been OK if M&H had managed to convince piano buyers that it was the thing to have and worth paying more for, or at least buying M&H instead of other brands.
- Tuners didn't have the tool for tuning them (backed up by the fact that M&H started shipping the pianos with the tool included, in a little holder inside the piano).
- Tuners weren't following the correct procedure for tuning them stably. If you "tune from above" it's going to be a disaster.