Posted on 09/23/2024 8:41:03 AM PDT by CharlesOConnell
To err sounds human.
I used to work the houses on the beach and always wondered about the piano on “Two and a Half Men” my customers said the salt water messed with their pianos.
An operating engineer had to teach me, “to avoid cross-threading a screw, you turn it backwards until it clicks, then you are at the correct insertion rotation point”. I never knew such a thing.
= == =
This is really, really important. Especially in replacing sheet metal screws.
A little harder to perform on the new cars, with plastic fittings and maybe previous cross threading by the dealer’s ‘technicians’.
Although on a much smaller scale, similar problems with guitars and fish.
I tune the B string on my guitar a few cents down for that bluesy-type note that's almost "there" but not quite.
I don't even want to think about tuning a piano. Three strings per key? Nuts!
They are all keyed up.
In my high school there was a piano tuner who came through once a year, or as needed.
He was an elderly man who needed to be escorted from one piano to the next because he was totally blind.
He did good work.
Fascinating info, Charles. Thanks for writing that up. Like any great craft, so much of the art is hidden away, taken for granted, and never appreciated. It’s amazing what goes into making a great piano.
I grew up with a Baldwin upright in our house. Mom was a good pianist and church choir singer. She tried very hard to instill that in me and my two sisters, but it didn’t stick. I remember well the long hours of drudgery trying to learn to play the piano competently. I could barely progress beyond “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” I kept asking to end my lessons but mom kept me going for a few years and finally relented and let me quit. Of course, that’s one of the regrets of my life.
Tomorrow my wife and I will make tuna jelly. It’s an Arizona thing.
If you hire Mr. Opporknockity to tune your piano, make sure he gets it right the first time.
Because Opporknockity only tunes once.
You can tuna fish but you can’t tune a piano?............
Since when do TVwriters care about accuracy?
Precisely
Since I also lived on the water and knew what it did to brass and everything else, like those patio doors and door knobs and lamps etc. I would speculate what it would cost to keep everything in his house so shiny and the doors sliding open so easily and the windows not showing the ocean spray mess which covers everything.
I’m fortunate that my little brother is a graduate of North Bennet Street School Boston, in Piano Technology. Then trained at Steinway in NY. (He was there on 9/11.) He restored a Steinway for me a couple years ago.
Even though we don’t live close to each other, he knows how to identify the best techs in our area.
Humidity is the killer. As it swells the wood, the strings tighten and go sharp, as it dries, they loosen and go flat. Keep the instrument in a climate controlled room with a constant level of humidity.
The newer electronic pianos are offering interesting sounds, with weighted keys at a lower cost. Only getting better for newcomers who can eventually graduate to an acoustic grand if their talent warrants it.
Read later.
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