Thank you, Susan,
There are many kinds of piano technicians. There are some who work exclusively in concert halls and recording studios. There are others who work at University schools of music. There are those who live in a large enough city and have been in business long enough to be able to have an exclusive clientele of only fine grands. There are those who do rebuilding work most of the time and the only time they are out tuning is when they are taking care of the instruments they have rebuilt or other fine instruments.
All of the above, I would say, constitute only a small minority of those who are professional piano technicians. The rest, as I am and always have been, are general practitioners. The neighborhood piano technician. The small town piano technician. We may get our fair share of the finer instruments, we may service some some concert venues, schools, churches, local recording studios, restaurants, hotels, senior care facilities and so forth. We may even do some occasional large repair jobs such as action parts replacement and restringing but for the most part, we earn our living tuning and servicing all types of pianos, even those which we do not personally like.
I used to liken it to being a neighborhood veterinarian. Sure, there are vets who only treat thoroughbred race horses or are exclusive to pedigree animals but the neighborhood vet has to care for whatever comes through the door. There is always something that can be done, even if it is to perform a caring and comforting euthanasia.
These days, if a piano really is no longer serviceable, I direct customers to Craigslist where people are sometimes giving away a perfectly useful instrument. Others are priced in the low three figures. People often ask me how much their piano is worth and that becomes a delicate question to answer. I have to start with the fact that many hundreds of thousands of good quality pianos have been built and the testimony as to how well they were built is the fact that they are still good and useful after 50 years. What other product of any kind is there which can compare to that?
The reasons for the decline of the piano industry are many but that is one of them. Once a piano goes out the door of the factory, it is likely to be useful for an entire lifetime or beyond. A new one cannot be sold to a family every five to ten years. The new one that was bought in the 1950's went to the children and now the grandchildren have it and are starting lessons on it with the great grandchildren.
So, when it comes to the question about what it will cost to take apart the Acrosonic, clean it out, tighten the flanges, file and align the hammers, regulate it, raise the pitch and fine tune it, all which would take an entire day, the answer is that it will cost more than the piano is worth. Often far more. But that does not mean the services are not worth having done. The family is not interested in selling the piano. It is THEIR piano! I will usually say that while the piano has little or no market value as it is now, if the investment is made to have the piano sound and play as the manufacturer intended, it will then usually be worth at least twice as much as the tuning and repair services cost.
It would be a good idea for many general practitioner type technicians to also learn finish repair such as burn, scratch and dent repair as well as to learn how to repair chips in keytops. Many customers have a threshold for tuning rates but when it comes to other services like those, they will pay whatever you ask. Adding a little dignity to the piano can often make a tuning service call turn into bottom line profits that will sustain the business.
Regarding again the ceiling fan, the reason it causes distortion I am told is the Doppler effect. When the blades are turning at a slow or moderate speed, the distortion they cause can be unnerving, yes. The idea of bringing in your own fan is fine but if you find yourself in a situation where it is hot and there is no other fan available, simply crank up the ceiling fan to top speed. The blades are likely to turn so fast that the Doppler effect is no longer heard or at least, it can be distinguished from the beats of intervals that you are trying to tune.
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William Bremmer
RPT
Madison WI
608-238-8400
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-04-2017 00:52
From: Susan Kline
Subject: Tuning Shenanigans
I think you've really nailed this one, Bill, right on target, complete with a rich history and many detailed suggestions.
If I could make a short paraphrase of what you are saying, I might conclude that a piano like this requires a flexible attitude and the embrace of many different virtues instead of a dogmatic and rigid application of rules as taught. Given enough flexibility and what one might call "ugliness avoidance", it may well be that an aural tuner along my lines might stray into a less than perfectly equal temperament, without worrying about it.
It's been many years (like about 38) since I've tried to make F-A 7 beats per second. I added the contiguous major thirds to the tuning routine (right after setting A3, F2, and F3) about that time, and it has served me well. If a piano like a Hamilton requires a slower F-A major third than I'd like, and if it doesn't respond well to a stretched octave and nearly pure fifths and fourths -- well, it's not a 9 foot grand. It can only do what it can do.
I suppose that my approach to pianos with "troubled" tenors and tenor-bass breaks might be described as "minimize as much of the obnoxiousness as possible within a normal length of time, then don't fret." When I first started tuning and encountered intractable problems such as a note with horrible false beats in the middle treble, I would say to myself in an anguished tone, "I CAN'T leave it sounding like THAT!!" Pretty soon I began countering that by saying, "they're used to hearing it sounding even worse."
And yes, the dignity of any piano. Clean, minor problems fixed, and plenty of effort to get them sounding good. A careful explanation of any condition which the owner should be aware of, and what might or might not be done about it. We do take money for this work, after all.
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Susan Kline
Philomath, Oregon
Original Message:
Sent: 09-03-2017 18:20
From: William Bremmer
Subject: Tuning Shenanigans
Sean,
You identified the very piano that frustrated the daylights out of Dr. Al Sanderson. He was known to have said, "There is NO program for that piano!" Yet, the late Owen Jorgensen raised three sons by tuning them as his regular practice at Michigan State University. I agree with David Love in that the Contiguous Major Thirds (CM3) is at least one solution to the problem because if you know how to use that system effectively, the piano itself will tell you what is right for it, rather than you trying to impose what you think should be right and never getting it to work.
Owen Jorgensen however, never used CM3's. He always used the classic Braide-White style 4ths and 5ths temperament sequence but he knew how to manipulate it. He must have had the same problem as you, initially but when faced with what he had to work with, sooner or later, he found a solution. So, there are really two ways to approach the problem with Equal Temperament. You should use the one which suits you best, based upon your usual practice and experience. Professor Jorgensen did acknowledge that when he heard about the newly resurrected use of CM3's that the value of them was the fact that they served to divide the octave into three, perfectly equal parts.
The problem with the Baldwin Hamilton (and many other short scaled pianos) is that in the lowest several plain wire strings in the low tenor, there is extremely high inharmonicity. Then, the two wound string bichords in the low tenor and those on the upper part of the Bass bridge have much more reasonable amounts of inharmonicity. When you are tuning by ear, the 5ths, for example have two sets of audible coincident partials at both the 3:2 and 6:4 levels. As you may know, inharmonicity increases geometrically with each higher partial. In the case of a very high inharmonicity string such as in this kind of piano, the amount of increase is nothing short of a staggering amount!
An aural tuner will normally compare 4ths & 5ths plus M3's and M6's. This means in this case that you are comparing apples, oranges, peaches and grapes and expecting to make them all to be like one generic piece of fruit which only exists in theory. In other words, it cannot really be done so there is no use in becoming so frustrated with an unsolvable problem. That being said, there definitely is more than one way to find a tolerable compromise.
The problem that most often occurs is that aural tuners think they must "assign" a 7 beat per second beat rate to the F3-A3 M3. If you do that, you never will get a decent Equal Temperament out of it. If, on the other hand, you know how properly work with the initial chain of CM3's from F3 to A4 (four of them, not just three), you can still get the proper 4:5 ratio between them but their beat rates will be somewhat different from the way they are on a better scaled piano. You will probably find, for example that the F3-A3 M3 is closer to 6 beats per second than 7. But don't assign it, let it happen.
Another mistake that is often made is to decide that because of the high inharmonicity, would it not be better to start with a fairly wide initial temperament octave? NO! Use the most common, F3-F4 temperament octave and start with it at the easy to determine, 4:2 type. The high inharmonicity of that range will then allow you to fit the upper octaves much more easily. If you start with a wider octave, you will have to tune the upper octaves all the more sharply or you will end up with narrow double and triple octaves which will make the entire piano sound poorly.
If you are not accustomed to setting an initial chain of CM3's and prefer a classic 4ths & 5th sequence, you'll need to again have your temperament octave not overly stretched. The 4ths & 5ths will need to be a bit more tempered sounding than what you may be used to doing. They will actually be more like the theoretical values. You simply ignore the fact of the more rapid sounding beat of the 6:4 5th. Only you may actually hear that but not the client. To them, it may well sound more like a pleasing resonance rather than an annoying and completely unsolvable dilemma.
In Owen Jorgensen's very last Journal article, he had a solution for the low tenor of such pianos. It was to make the minor thirds (m3) be as even as possible and to ignore the consequences in other intervals such as octaves and 5ths. The late George Defebaugh also talked about this. There is no music, really, where open 5ths and single octaves are exposed in this area of the piano. The rapidly beating intervals are where the "music" is. Pianists are not likely to "bang" on open 5ths and octaves in that area of the piano and complain that they do not sound "pure" but they may very well do that in both the upper and lower octaves. It is the chords that they play that they want to sound harmonious. The tempering in 5ths is largely masked and "swallowed" in the context of music.
I will also go out on a limb here to say, after all this time, that yet another solution can very well be to not try to tune Equal Temperament at all. It is standard practice and of that I am very well aware. I shocked and irritated many people some 25 years ago when I brought up the subject of non-equal temperaments. Many technicians were astounded when I said that I never tune any piano that way. I still most often do not. Certainly, in the case of a Baldwin Hamilton, I never would.
Back in the day, many technicians found such a statement to be outrageous. One even went so far to say that it was unethical, if not illegal behavior. Yet, I persisted and still tune almost every piano in a mild, Victorian style Well Temperament. Attitudes have softened since then as more technicians have come to realize that it is a viable option.
A local musician and musicologist and PhD performer once said, "Poor scales eat Well Temperament". Indeed, they do. So, I also suggest that you consider the fact that the perfectly arranged equality found in Equal Temperament is not really possible on a poorly scaled piano, so why should you even try to do what is not really possible? Find something else that actually works better. I did. Time and again, year after year, I get the voluntary comments from people with spinets, consoles and studio pianos such as the Baldwin Hamilton that I somehow made their piano sound better and more musically satisfying and pleasurable than any other technician ever did.
The bottom line in each and every case was that I cared for the piano in a dignified way. I cleaned the interior, the case and keys, made it play properly, look dignified and I put the money for it that I received in the bank, the same as I have for any higher quality instrument. Those would never be a piano I would wish to have or to listen to but they were the pianos that my clients owned and cherished, so rather than hate them and say to myself that I could not tune them and would not even try to maintain them otherwise, I always performed the skills that any piano technician should have and regularly execute on them. I would quite often get far more than a usual fee for what I did, often got generous tips as well.
If you or anyone else would like an updated plan for how to tune aurally a piano with a mild (nearly equal but not quite) Victorian style Well Temperament, please write me at: billbrpt@charter.net Please do not ask me for electronic tuning instructions. They will not really work.
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William Bremmer
RPT
Madison WI
608-238-8400
Original Message:
Sent: 09-02-2017 22:12
From: Sean Stafford
Subject: Tuning Shenanigans
I'm seeking insight and guidance on a situation I have where I cannot seem to set a temperament aurally on a particular upright piano.
It's a Baldwin Hamilton upright. I just cannot set a temperament aurally on this piano! I can tune other pianos, what is different about this one?
The first time it happened, I thought I was just having a bad day, fired up the ETD and tuned it up. I like to tune aurally because most of time I'm faster that way, and it feels more efficient. But no worries, chalked it up to a bad day, one of those things... and never gave it another thought.
I went back to the same piano today. Same thing. It's like there is too much happening harmonically (or partially, if that's a word!) and several beats happening at once.
I simply cannot seem to tune that piano without an ETD.
When listening to the temperament intervals it's like I can hear several beats and I'm having a hard time tuning! My temperament ends up being completely discombobulated!
Ugh. I've been tuning a while and I'm aware of the effects of false beats, maybe that's what I"m encountering with this piano. One clue, when I'm tuning with the ETD there are a couple unisons in the temperament range that seem dirty, noisy and not right. They never fully "null out" and again, I would describe them as harmonically complex. These are on plain strings, not wound.
Comparing this to most pianos I tune, I can hear the partials I'm listening for, and I can set a temperament and tune away. No issues. This piano is different!
I've tuned other Baldwin Hamilton pianos and don't have this problem with them. It's not the make and model of the piano. It's a mystery to me at this point. I'd love to hear what others do in similar situations.
I'm considering flipping the piano on it's back, checking the seating of the string on the bridge and plate etc. thoughts on that?
I'm also considering quitting piano tuning and becoming a brain surgeon, I'm sure it's easier!!
Sean
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Sean Stafford
Endicott NY
607-239-4643
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