Pianotech

I improved the stubborn rendering through the fittings in the capo sections of an early Baldwin SD-10 by slacking the wires a note at a time, pulling them aside, laying 6B graphite (from a pencil) into the long counter bearing grooves, and then taking strips of medium emery cloth and shoe-shining the gently curved main bearings. Slacking the wires and then pulling them back to pitch automatically assured that some wire would have gone around the hitch pin (because, of course, one side is always let down before the other), so all the bearing points had fresh wire.

Tuning ease and stability were greatly increased, the tuning lasted through concerts much better, and people started to like the instrument when they had barely tolerated it before.

I improved the stubborn rendering through the fittings in the capo sections of an early Baldwin SD-10 by slacking the wires a note at a time, pulling them aside, laying 6B graphite (from a pencil) into the long counter bearing grooves, and then taking strips of medium emery cloth and shoe-shining the gently curved main bearings. Slacking the wires and then pulling them back to pitch automatically assured that some wire would have gone around the hitch pin (because, of course, one side is always let down before the other), so all the bearing points had fresh wire.

Tuning ease and stability were greatly increased, the tuning lasted through concerts much better, and people started to like the instrument when they had barely tolerated it before.

HI, Keith

I'm a little worried by the molybdenum. I feel that ZERO friction is not desirable, and I'm wondering if it could be removed should it be TOO slippery.

After all, tuning stability gets worse if the wire can always slide very freely across the bearing. You want to be able to render the wire when tuning, so it should not be totally stuck or moving erratically by jerks, but you don't want it to render when the pianist plays one double forte chord, even if the tuning "self-heals" from a single forte chord afterwards.

I've sometimes had to tune one very old D, used to be concert and artist, where just putting the tuning hammer on the tuning pin was enough to change the pitch. Not at all a benign situation.

I improved the stubborn rendering through the fittings in the capo sections of an early Baldwin SD-10 by slacking the wires a note at a time, pulling them aside, laying 6B graphite (from a pencil) into the long counter bearing grooves, and then taking strips of medium emery cloth and shoe-shining the gently curved main bearings. Slacking the wires and then pulling them back to pitch automatically assured that some wire would have gone around the hitch pin (because, of course, one side is always let down before the other), so all the bearing points had fresh wire.

Tuning ease and stability were greatly increased, the tuning lasted through concerts much better, and people started to like the instrument when they had barely tolerated it before.

HI, Keith

I'm a little worried by the molybdenum. I feel that ZERO friction is not desirable, and I'm wondering if it could be removed should it be TOO slippery.

After all, tuning stability gets worse if the wire can always slide very freely across the bearing. You want to be able to render the wire when tuning, so it should not be totally stuck or moving erratically by jerks, but you don't want it to render when the pianist plays one double forte chord, even if the tuning "self-heals" from a single forte chord afterwards.

I've sometimes had to tune one very old D, used to be concert and artist, where just putting the tuning hammer on the tuning pin was enough to change the pitch. Not at all a benign situation.

I improved the stubborn rendering through the fittings in the capo sections of an early Baldwin SD-10 by slacking the wires a note at a time, pulling them aside, laying 6B graphite (from a pencil) into the long counter bearing grooves, and then taking strips of medium emery cloth and shoe-shining the gently curved main bearings. Slacking the wires and then pulling them back to pitch automatically assured that some wire would have gone around the hitch pin (because, of course, one side is always let down before the other), so all the bearing points had fresh wire.

Tuning ease and stability were greatly increased, the tuning lasted through concerts much better, and people started to like the instrument when they had barely tolerated it before.