I want to make a glass sided case to show the workings of a double escapment (grand )piano action. Is anyone out there breaking one or have one for sale? I just want a single key (maybe two).Will pay a reasonable cost+pp of course. (This sort of thing isn't available on ebay :-) so apols if is OT)
On 15 Oct 2004, dave wrote
Can't help personally, but if you rang 'round to the piano tuners in your area you might find one with a lead to a junked grand or parts thereof.
(The piano tuner I use here in Basingstoke has a sideline in reconditioned pianos; I'd be surprised if that's not the case elsewhere.)
Roughly how much should it cost to have a piano tuned?
My mother's sounds like an East End knees-up and could do with a bit of twiddling before Christmas.
Christian.
On 15 Oct 2004, Christian McArdle wrote
It's just gone up from £40 to £42 (it was done last week). I have it done twice a year.
If it's really out of tune, it'll probably need at least two tunings to get it back into correct pitch. (Once to get it in fairly good tune; then you let it slide back out for a couple of weeks and re-do it again.)
As this is DIY, though, I should mention that many years ago I owned a piano that was so bad -- couldn't hold a tune at all -- that I couldn't find a tuner who was interested in dealing with it. I bought a tuning wrench (called a tuning "hammer", I think -- I still have it), and at least got the strings into relative tune with one another -- albeit a half or full tone down from where it should have been tuned.
I don't think it is that bad!
It's just that it evokes that lock-in at the pub for "roll out the barrel" feeling, which isn't appropriate for Grieg or Rachmaninov.
Christian.
On 15 Oct 2004, Christian McArdle wrote
Oh, I dunno: I rather fancy the idea of "now I'm gonna play a li'l bi' of yer honky-tonk Rokkers"... ;)
Do you know how much extra it is to adjust the action? I imagine it is due for that. The keys are all at different heights, for a start!
Christian.
On 15 Oct 2004, Christian McArdle wrote
No idea; sorry. (I've never needed to have that done, but I can imagine it takes a tad longer than the hour or so it takes to do the semi-annual tuning!)
In message , Christian McArdle writes
Aren't you oop north ?
I have a friend who normally does mine for free, so I don't know, but could find out
I have tuned my piano myself, and it was reasonably successful (but you do need a reasonably good or trained ear) - I was quite surprised at how well it came out with regard to even tempered tuning
One important question is whether you are ever going to play it with other instruments, if not, you can tune it to the average of it's tuning rather than trying to pull it up to concert pitch which would be more difficult and would need several attempts over a period of time as it settles down
In message , Christian McArdle writes
How long is a piece of string ?
You should also be able to do that yourself, just look at what you have to adjust in the action (there are lots of different mechanisms)
I really do suggest that you have a go yourself, if the keys are at different heights, it sounds like you can't do much more damage than already exists
There are lots of books about tuning and overhauling pianos. Have a look in your local Library.
I'll certainly think about it. Time is at a premium, however, and I'm not particularly musical myself. It would certainly require some electronic help.
Christian.
The mechanical bits - like levelling the keyboard and adjusting the action - shouldn't be too difficult. Tuning is another matter though! I suspect that its one of those things like plastering - where you have to do a *lot* of it to become any good. There is certainly a black art in getting an equi-tempered scale, including getting the right beat frequency between harmonics. There is also a technique required to slightly over-tighten each string, and then ease off a bit so that pin friction is on your side when it comes to holding the tune. Then there's the practice of tuning the top end notes slightly sharp so that they *sound* right!
I think that there are electronic frequency generators which may help with some of this - but I suspect that *proper* piano tuners don't use them.
In message , Set Square writes
Yes, just time consuming
It really depends on how good an ear you have. Also don't forget, you have to have a tool to dampen the two strings you're not actually tuning.
Yes piano tuners work on beats, but the way I did it was to get one octave to be (what I considered to be ) even tempered, and then tuned the other octaves to it
Yes, you should do this with any stringed instrument. To be honest, I didn't find it to be much of a problem. I expect it depends on the quality of the wood the pin is set into
A bit like a brickie using one of those gadgets to lay his bricks correctly - no chance
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On 18 Oct 2004, raden wrote
-snip-
As an aside, this applies to almost any fine-tuning of any mechanical device.
Offhand, I can't think of any case where the standard practice isn't to move a control just beyond the desired point, and then to bring it back to where it should be.
Anything with backlash. There are a lot of adjustments where you must always approach them from the same side, either because there's a clearance that will tend to close up over time if you don't do it first, or else just for consistency.
Or hysteresis - as in the case of a piano string, wound round a pin held by friction.
In message , Andy Dingley writes
AKA hysteresis
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