A single piano key sets into motion a set of 3 strings, all set in motion by the same hammer and all tuned, ideally, to the exact same pitch. This collection of 3 strings is called a unison. One usually sets a temperment by muting off 2 of the 3 strings in each unison over the temperment octave. This allows you to really focus on specific individual partials between the note you are tuning and the note you are tuning from. This is usually done by threading a thick felt strip between each of the unisons, muting the outside string of each. You then tune the center string as the reference. Setting a temperment is a really process of adjusting 12 variables, each of the strings in the octave. making those fine adjustments is considered much easier to do with one string at a time, and then, when you are

My Yamaha CFIIIS came back from PianoWorks in Atlanta and was installed in Charleston. It was very nicely strung with new pinblock and treble bridge cap. Flawless delivery to Charleston sounding very good on arrival. Good is relative, of course. The parts PianoWorks did were very very good. The sound of the hammers and their presence in a midsize room was harsh. They will only begin to sound acceptable with a couple of hours of serious voicing, and that can’t happen until the piano is tuned and very stable. To me, that’s at least 10 tunings. I just have to get started. I haven’t tuned a piano in a year and before that probably 2, so I’m rusty. The skills of tuning stay with you, like riding a bike. The facility and confidence, however, have to be painstakingly, patiently rebuilt.

I should have known better, but I got screwed by a piano rebuilder in Yonkers. He came recommended by a friend who should know. Originally I just needed my piano restrung, a pretty straight ahead job if you’re a restringer so made sense to have it done. Long story short, the piano ended up in his shop to have bridge capped because the bearing needed resetting. No problem here, I agreed with everything. But this is also where he screwed me by doing to most bulls**t job of bridge notching I have ever seen.The problem is that once a bridge is notched, there is not much room to do it over. So, the piano is with my friends at PianoWorks in Atlanta, having the bridge recapped and the whole thing restrung. Crap, maybe at the end of this I’ll finally have a real piano to send to my new pad

Oh my dear, you understand me but you don’t understand the nature of piano technology. I took a good wack at making progress on my piano. I fine tuned the key level, then went over the hammer line, drop and let off before taking a critical bash at keydip. AT LAST, it’s beginning to feel like a piano! Yes, uneven as hell, but at least there is aftertouch. I’m keeping a pretty good eye on the humidifier. I’ve got 3 hygrometers scattered around and am keeping things between 40% and 50%. Still, the tuning drifts (at least to my ear…being a piano tuner can be a curse) so I spent some time tuning the other day. Rather than just do the quick fix with the standard settings in the RCT, I spent some critical time getting my ear back for aural temperaments. Of course, by the time that was done,

I’ve owned a Reyburn Cyber Tuner for the last year. Pretty cool little device and very informative to let you know what is going on when one tunes a piano. I’m far from being one of those egg head electronic tuners that are so common at the conventions, but have gotten a little way into it. One observation: the standard tunings that come in these things stretch the octaves way too much for my ear. I think it  is really the drift in the country towards the loud, harsh sound you hear so often. I just don’t think the octaves on a concert grand should beat…it’s just not natural or musical. When I check my aural octaves to the standard tuning in the RCT, I’m flat by a very consistent, and very small amount. Must be my Viennese training. I took Ferdinand Braeu, the Bosendorfer technical director to see a

I worked for for Bosendorfer during the Kimball years.  That, in my opinion, was a much less logical combination than Bosendorfer and Yamaha and there were plenty of jokes (Kimball-dorfers, Bosen-balls). But, in fact, Kimball was a wonderful steward for Bosendorfer, probably a better steward of Bosendorfer than of their own brand. I believe that a large part of our US market presence today is due to the tremendous investment in Bosendorfer marketing that Kimball made 25 years ago. You can accuse me of smarmonisoty (I made part of that up) at this point, but I believe that Yamaha will be a similar steward (and I sincerely hope so for the sake of my career). There is an important aspect to the value proposition, beyond the simple profit and loss accounting, that just makes sense. Yamaha is deeply dedicated to the world of serious pianos and music making and has demonstrated that

Always, (always) close your punching box.

You could also say this is in the “my eyes were bigger than my stomach” category. I got tool obsessed while at the PTG convention in Kansas City and ordered a bunch of stuff from both Schaff and PianoTek. I’ve known the Johnson brothers at Schaff for decades and prefer them, but they don’t have some of the cooler new stuff PianTek has.  However, man, is PianoTek expensive. Anyway sent in an order to PianoTek without totaling it….$360!! So I had to remove the coolest stuff for now, those key weighting weights in the wooden box, the instant hygrometer and the digital tape measure…damn! I need balance and front rail punchings more.

I’ve developed good concert prep kind of skills; regulation, voicing, finding and fixing noise, working under time pressure etc. What I am NOT is a rebuilder. I’ve voiced new hammers from scratch alot, but I really haven’t had much experience installing new hammers. However, considering how many people do it, how hard can it be? So, about 3 years ago I decided to replace the original overvoiced stock Yamaha CFIII hammers with a new set. First decision, replace with what? Since I wisely figured that my first hanging job would not be my best, I bought a set from Wally Brooks…the make of which I really can’t remember (deep red underfelt). I know that is herasy to hammer buffs (what??!!! I suppose you don’t remember your MOM’s name either!!). I had Wally drill them and I hung on the original shanks. Well, let’s just say my hammer hanging was pretty

Being a piano guy, I have a rather unusual one. A Yamaha CFIIIS 51GX, picked up under special circumstances (completely above board) during the early part of my time at Yamaha. The GX series are experimental and the short lived 51 share a number of very specific technical traits of another company & Sons. It was not the nicest of the ones I had to select from, but these technical features hooked me for the sake of novelty. The problem is that when you own a concert grand and one is a piano technician, ones piano should be in good condition, which has lead to all kinds of frustration and anguish. I’ll go into that later, but I have begun the process of trying to get it into some kind of concert level shape, starting with basic key work. This should go into the Please God, Get A Life category,