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THE
14
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
OWTECHNICAL DEPARTMENT
SOME ASSUMPTIONS AND NEGLECTS.
Ability and modesty usually run together. Al-
though the man or woman who possesses some
unusual faculty may, and should, take a just pride
in his or her accomplishments, true wisdom al-
ways realizes that with the increase in knowledge
comes ever the opening vista of still wider and
wider stretches of new lands to be conquered;
new terrae incognitae inviting, nay demanding,
exploration. Every advance in science only shows
how infinitely greater is the realm of nescience.
And so it is the part of the wise to be modest,
though confident vithal.
ideas like these are needed once in a while. The
editor of this' department, not without the privy
aid and abettance of his readers, has come to be
regarded as the public mouth of the American
piano tuner. It is through this page in The Re-
view that the wishes, aspirations, hopes and de-
sires, not to mention the complaints and criticisms,
of the piano tuning world have come to express
themselves. This being so, it is not undesirable
that from time to time just such a short sermon-
ette as that which preceded the present paragraph
should be delivered, as it were ex cathedra, from
the inmost penetralia of the editorial mind itself.
The greatest asset that a man can possess is
confidence. To be confident in one's ability to
perform each task well as it comes up before us,
is not merely the most valuable but the most com-
forting sort of faculty that one can have. And
this confidence has pulled many a man off what
might have been the reef of Despair and landed
him in the harbor of Success, simply because
possession of it blinded his eyes to the difficulties'
and dangers of the passage.
But, in its highest manifestations, self-confidence
can only be the result and sign of adequate knowl-
edge. The man is best self-confident who best
knows how to do the things that he sets out to
perform. A mere blind complacency does not take
the place of training and ability any more than
pure thought can evolve the chicken from the egg.
In order to do, we must know.
These thoughts are suggested by the reflection
that, in our profession, we have two classes of
men who are not fulfilling their obligations and
duties to the world in anything like an adequate
manner. One of these has knowledge without
confidence and the other confidence without knowl-
A PRETTY PROBLEM.
edge. Both are incomplete, both dangerous; to
themselves as well as to others'. Yet both exist in
A really neat little problem in the technics of
plentiful numbers.
piano construction is afforded in consideration of
How often one observes a tuner who, by every the vario.us methods which are, and at different
rule of common sense, by every fact of his train- times have been, adopted for "crowning" the
ing, should be able to inspire confidence and appre- sound-board. Anyway you like to look at the mat-
ciation in the minds of his customers, bring about
ter, doubt and difficulty arise, but in all the mist
precisely the opposite feeling, because his manner, of arguments pro and con there has never seemed
his way of doing things, his refusal to explain his to arise very much of clarity or even definiteness
processes, his skulking "take-it-or-leave-it" aspect of understanding. And this is rather unfortunate.
inspire distrust instead of trust, suspicion instead
The object of ihe so-called "crowning" of a
of appreciation? This is an example of the first sound-board is undoubtedly to give it greater ten-
type. Why should a piano tuner who has been sion on the one hand, and on the other hand to
well trained, who knows his' business, who knows
increase its resistant powers' to the torsional
or ought to know that he is practicing a fine art, strains imposed on it. The subjection of the board
be ashamed of his knowledge, afraid to let people to tension is intended to increase its vibratory
feel that he respects himself and expects others
capacity, and hence its resonant power.
to respect him in turn?
Now, it would seem plain that, if the crowning
Painful, however, as this sort of thing may be, or arching of a sound-board is at all a good thing,
it is not so bad as the assumption of wisdom and
the more we have of it the better. And the point
infallible knowledge which we so often find among to which I should especially like to draw attention
tuners' in their dealings with the public. We all
is that piano makers have been very notably hes-
know the sort of man who, almost before he has itant in applying the general idea of high-tension
gotten his foot into a customer's house, will begin
to the making and bellying of sound-boards. If
to prate about how much he knows, how many
any crowning is good, then more crowning is bet-
years' experience he has had, how many different
ter. If any tension is good, then, all things being
kinds of stunts in repairing, etc., he can do with
equal, high tension is better than low tension.
a piano, what Miss So-and-So said to him after
Now, it has been the almost universal practice
he had tuned her piano; and so on ad infinitum.
of piano makers to impart an arch or crown to
1
This sort of tuner is very often not half so able
their boards along the line of the belly-bridge by
as he thinks himself to be. And always he is a
planing the ribs, bridges and linings in such a way
pest of the worst kind. He brings naught but
that when glued to the surfaces of the board they
discredit upon his profession and assists markedly
warp it out of its natural plane into a form follow-
in the general propagation of the popular idea that
ing the curves imparted to them by the process
a piano tuner is socially and professionally some- of planing. Of course, it follows that the more
what lower than a plumber or a gas man.
sharply the ribs, bridges and linings are curved,
the more sharply will the board be arched or
WHAT WE OFFER YOU
crowned. But there would seem to be a decided
limit to the possible arching or crowning thus'
W« havo in easily assimilated form,
made possible. For piano makers have stopped
right here in this school, accumulated ex-
generally at a planing which gives no more than,
perience that it would take years to gain
at the most, % inch of rise in the center of the
Tia the route we traveled. We give you the
board at the belly-bridge; a crowning which sinks
advantage of it in a few weeks. Private,
usually to about IV inch when the strings are
pmr tonal instruction.
We apecialize on
on and pulled up to pitch. And, moreover, it will
player-piano repairing and regulation
POLK'S SCHOOL OF TUNING,
Valparaiso, Ind.
TUNERS BUY ON SIGHT
Patent tpplltd for.
Wo otlMr tool wlU w
•uoMrfollT or quick.
ljr bMnt brldl* rl»-
Htm
Now, the hesitancy of piano makers may be ex-
plained on the ground that any greater planing of
the ribs and bridges' would tend so to disturb the
balance of their proportions as to render them less
efficient as supports for the board. In the same
way it must be remarked that the more one arches
the board, the more the fibres on the upper sur-
face are pulled apart, while those on the under
surface are the more squeezed together. Hence,
the greater the arching of the board, the greater
the contrast between the tension of the upper sur-
face and the compression of the lower. But is not
this precisely and exactly a most desirable condi-
tion? Surely, from the view-point of resonance,
it must be just that.
Now, it occurs that if, in addition to the planing
of the ribs and bridges and the further planing
of the linings into which the board is finally glued,
one were to enclose the whole board within a
heavy laminated rim, or something like that, and
have this rim somewhat too small for the board,
and if one were then to shrink the board by lieat •-'
and force it into this smaller space, it would be
possible greatly to increase the tension, through a
parallel increase in the arching or crowning, with-
out in any way disturbing the proportions of ribs
and bridges.
It is a very pretty problem and quite worthy of
extended study. I wonder what readers think
of it?
Communications for this department should be
addressed to the Editor, Technical Department,
The Music Trade Review. W. R. W.
Hammer Head
and
Butt Borer
FAUST SCHOOL OF TUNING
Pianoforte, Player-Raw, Pipe and Reed Organ Toning
BrMle Klbbon Inserter
mr
be noted that very often the board is crowned
only on the longitudinal line of the belly-bridge,
and not transversely at all, or at least so little
as to be unworthy of attention.
Now, to the unprejudiced observer, it would
seem that there is something wrong with either
the theory or the method. It cannot be that the
idea of arching is wrong, for the simple reason
that resonance is approximately proportional to
tension. And tension is proportional to the arch-
ing. But the point that occupies my mind is this:
If the idea of a crown be so well acknowledged
as not only reasonable but good, why is it that
no one attempts to carry it out to an extent which
will really give us a sound-board highly tensioned?
Let us suppose the case of a sound-board 4 feet
square. (The dimensions are not entirely accu-
rate, of course, and are chosen merely for con-
venience.) This means an area of 1G square feet.
Now, supposing that this board is' arched so that
it has a rise of T"G inch longitudinally and the
same transversely along the line of the bridge.
Plainly then the rise will be equal to approximately
.1302 per cent, in the transverse direction and ap-
proximately .0919 per cent, in the longitudinal
direction. Clearly, this is a very small, almost im-
perceptible, tensioning.
DOLAN'S BOSTON
TUNERS' OUTFIT CO.
Dept. M. R.
Comnra * Washington
Streets. Boston. Mass.
The Faust School has recently taken over the Tuning
Department of the New England Conservatory of Music.
The principal, Oliver C Faust, has been in charge of that
department at the Conservatory for twenty years. The course
includes the Tuning, Repairing, Regulating, Voicing. Var
nishing anJ
anj Polishing of Pianofortes, Pipe and Reed Or
nishinc
and Putyer-Pianos.
r-Pianos,
Pupils hare dairy practice in Cbiefcering ft Sons'
factory.
27-29 GAINSBOROUGH ST^ BOSTON, MASS,
TUNERS SUPPLY CO.
Winter Hill District, BOSTON