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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
JULY 2, 1921
OurTECHNIGAL DEPARTMENT
CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM BKA1D WHITE
sticking out from a backing of heavy rubber
rather like a fat-toothed comb. This did very
well, till one day I lost it. Then some bright
Being an Interesting Subject on Which One person suggested a long strip of front-rail cloth,
Cannot Be Mute!
to be pushed in between the unisons. This, with
various replacements, sometimes in felt, some-
In the more or less good old days of more times in rubber, has lasted me until this very
than twenty years ago, when I was an ambitious day, though it no longer gets the daily use to
youngster learning to tune pianos in a celebrated which for so many years it had been accustomed.
New York factory, I learned several things ;
Now, I should like to inqu're of the old-timers
which I have since unlearned. Perhaps the fac- whether any one of them has been able to think
tory had something to do with this. It was a up a better scheme than this of the strip for
celebrated factory, I have said, but I have not conveniently and rapidly handling the tempera-
said in what its celebrity consisted.
ment octave. And, furthermore, I wonder if
Well, when I started to learn tuning I began anyone has ever tried to extend this idea over
with:
the whole scale of the piano, especially in tun-
One tuning hammer, cheap and bad, price one ing grand pianos. Being fortunate enough to
dollar and fifty cents.
have a fine grand piano myself and having many
Two rubber wedges, price two nickels.
friends with grand pianos who like to have me
One wooden wedge, price one dime.
tune for them (which helps to keep my hand in)
One tuning fork, cheap and bad—very bad— I have made many experiments in muting the
price three nickels.
strings. In the end I have come to use several
One screw driver, price one dime.
strips for grand muting, one long enough to take
One pair of pliers, price one-tenth of a dollar. the whole middle section and one for each of
And I learned to tune pianos with that equip-
the other sections. Some grands are split in
ment. It is true that after a few months I saved four sections, or even five.
up enough money to buy the splendid Er-
I find that it often seems to be a very good
landsen hammer, which I still have and which way of distributing the strain to tune the mid-
is still in perfect condition. But the two wedges dle strings throughout the piano without re-
of rubber and the one wedge of wood re- moving the mute-strips and then to tune each
mained, subject to occasional replacement, my unison, beginning from the bass and working
sole wedge equipment for years.
upward. This has sometimes saved me much
Now, of course, when one is working with two trouble when I have had a scale to tune which
wedges like this each tone of the temperament I could not get to stand in tune by ordinary
octave must be set and completely tuned before methods.
the next one is taken up. This requires almost
If any readers have experimented much in this
complete certainty in one's work and is hardly way I should be very glad to hear from them.
possible except in a factory where the pianos
come to one in uniform condition day after day.
ANOTHER VIEW ON FREE TUNING
But as soon as I found myself in a wareroom
A
Protest From an Eastern Employed Tuner
I also found that this happy-go-lucky way of
Who Thinks That the N. A. P. T. Is Wrong
doing things would not suffice. It became neces-
in Fighting the Free Tuning Evil
sary to try other expedients. I began with
buying a dozen more rubber wedges, sticking
The gentleman who sends me the following
them all at once into the temperament strings.
This was inconvenient, and so I tried an in- letter has not seen fit to entrust me with his
genious device consisting of a dozen mutes name, despite the fact that he has written several
other letters during past weeks. It will be re-
membered that some time ago an argument be-
gan between this correspondent and another on
VIBRATIONS GUARANTEED
the question of Eastern reluctance to join the
Tuners' Association. I shall say, frankly, that I
should not have noticed another anonymous let-
ter from him if the arguments contained in this
Series No. 170
one, and the point of view presented, were not
A-440, Bb-466.2 and C-523.3
(A-435 if desired)
really interesting. I do not agree with these
PRICE, 75c. EACH
arguments, but I think that they should be
Building
J. C. DEAGAN, • I 1786 Deagan
ventilated. Therefore, they are set forth here and
Berteau Avenue, Chicago
arc followed by my own comments.
"Dear Sir.—In last week's Review a brother
tuner from out West wondered why more
tuners from the East have not joined the
N. T. A. (meaning the N. A. P. T., Inc., no
Individual pneumatic stacks, roll
doubt.—W. B. W.). Now, I cannot speak for
MUTES AND MUTING
DEAGAN TUNING FORKS
URN YOUR STRAIGHT
PIANOS INTO PLAYERS
T
boxes, bellows, pedal actions,
expression boxes.
Manufacturers, dealers, tuners
and repair men supplied with
player actions for straight pianos.
TUNERS
JENKINSON PLAYER ACTION CO., Inc.
912-914 Elm St.
Cincinnati, O.
FAUST SCHOOL
OF TUNING
In it's 20*,
with upwards of
lOOO
1
SUCCESSFUL
GRADUATES
Here are
BASS STRINGS
Spedal irUatl.a alvtn to the aeedi ef the tuaer aad MM
OTTO R. TREFZ, Jr.
2110 Falrmount Avenue
COURT HOUSE SO.
VALPARAISO. IND.
Philadelphia. Pa.
The TUNER'S FRIEND
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others; still, what would be my reasons might,
perhaps, cover others.
"In the first place, so far as I know, there has
not been any agitation around here or in Boston
to start tuners to join. You know that Napoleon
said that two men under a leader are better than
a hundred all by themselves. I believe that some
one has got to take hold and lead the thing off,
and then the others will follow.
"One thing which creates opposition is the
stand which the Association has taken against
the so-called 'free tuning,' etc. Now, many of
us Easterners work for different warerooms and
if the 'free' tuning were abolished some one
would have to lose his job. It is not very likely
that any one is going to jeopardize his means of
earning a living. Of course, there is some truth
to the arguments against 'free' tuning, but there
are other facts which might favor it. We all
know,, when we come down to hard fact, that
'free' tuning is not free, nor is a bench thrown
in or a scarf. All these are reckoned into the
total cost of the piano, as well as 'free' delivery
and freight and the hundred and one other
things, including the war tax, which in the end
the purchaser pays.
"If the dealer could get the same price as he
now does for the piano and yet leave out all
these 'free' things there might be some cause
to push the fight against the 'free' tuning, so
called. To argue, as Brother McClellan has
argued, that because the tuning is free the tuner
is apt to skimp it, is not helping things.
"Recently I tuned a piano (player) for a cus-
tomer 'free.' He stated that he was disappointed
in the instrument. It did not sound as well as it
did when he had heard it in the store. In mov-
ing it had got jarred and needed tuning badly.
After I got through with it I played some nice
rolls. The customer and his wife came rushing
in from the next room with exclamations of
pleasure at the change for the better. The cus-
tomer could understand what the trouble was,
but if he had not had this 'free' tuning he would
have gone on as a dissatisfied customer, h u r t i n g
the sales of other players.
"Pianos and player-pianos out of tune are
hurting the sale of thousands of instruments.
Instead of fighting against free tunings, which
give legitimate work to other tuners, why not get
after the manufacturers and dealers and have
them give out some free advice as to the care
of piano and tuning, etc.? F. T. F., Haverhill,
Mass."
This is the argument of our friend and I
give it with pleasure. If The Review did not feel
that the success of the National Association of
Piano Tuners is important fo the general inter-
ests of the whole industry, perhaps so much
space and time would not be given to answering
letters like this. But the subject is important
(Continued on page 10)
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