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THE
FEBRUARY 11, 1922
MUSIC TRADE
11
REVIEW
OurTECHNICAL DEPARTMENT
CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM BRAID WHITE
to the hass end and strike on the string next
below the proper point is something that I do
not pretend to know. Of course, there are
always possible explanations, whether they be
plausible or not. The action might have been
set very badly at the start, so that in due course
the hammer shanks warped over, having perhaps
been warped artificially out of line in the be-
ginning, in order to get them to strike in the
right place when the action had been badly set.
But, so far as I can see, the only possible
remedy is to take out the hammer shanks and
replace them. If the shanks are taken from the
butts with an- extractor they can be easily re-
inserted in such a way that they will strike in
the right places, even if the butts are out of
line. Let each shank be carefully cleaned at
the butt end and replaced in the butt, to see
how it lines up. If it has to be slanted take a
file and file off one corner at the bottom of the
shank on the side opposite to the direction of
the required slant. Then file again, if needed,
until you find that you can slant the shank far
enough by pressing it over slightly in the desired
direction. Then when it is glued in it will
assume the proper position without any trou-
ble and will stay in its place after the glue is
dry.
Of course, if any reader can offer something
better for Mr. Clemens than this rather brief
consolation I hope he will come forward and
do the Good Samaritan act.
"ONE STRING DOWN'
Being the Mystery of the Bass Hammers That
Leaned Over
I feel very much like offering a prize for the
solution of the puzzle which Brother Clemens
submits. It comes very, close to getting what
i.s commonly called my goat.
"Dear Mr. White: As a subscriber to The
Review I wish to ask a question regarding some
work I have to do on a piano. I was called
into a home here a few days ago to tune their
piano, which, by the way, has not been tuned
for six or seven years. I found the hammers in
the entire bass section were striking one string
too low (on the double strings). I do not mean
that they were striking one note low, but, for
instance, the hammer that should strike the C
strings was striking one C string and one B
string. This was true all through the double-
string section. The hammers that strike only
one string were striking the correct string, but
instead of the contact being on the crown of
the hammer it was on the northeast corner, as
it were. The hammers in the middle and upper
registers seem to strike the strings properly. I
took the action out and examined it carefully
and can see nothing wrong with it. The name
on the fall board was L. B. Merrifield Co.,
Ottawa, 111. On the inside of the piano was
the name Western Cottage Piano & Organ Co.
1 wrote to the Merrifield Co. and received a
reply from tbe Ottawa Banking & Trust Co.,
advising me that the Western Cottage Piano &
Organ Co. was entirely out of business, its plant
having been destroyed by fire several years ago
and not rebuilt. I examined this piano carefully
and am unable to see what is causing this trou-
ble. If you can advise me as to what caused
this condition in tbis piano and what to do
to remedy it I should be very much obliged
Respectfully, A. L. Clemens, Sheldon, Iowa."
This sounds, as I said, like a real puzzle. Why
on earth the bass hammers on a .piano should
suddenly take it into their heads to lean over
LOOSE TUNING PINS
Brother Clemens contributes likewise the fol-
lowing little squib of interesting fact: "A little
item that came to my attention some time ago
may be of interest to some of the readers of the
Technical Department. Tuners sometimes have
a little trouble with a loose tuning pin. Of
course, the pin can be removed and a larger
cue put in its place, but this sometimes means
quite a little extra work. If the pin is taken
out and a small V-shaped piece of emery cloth
is put in the hole with the sanded side toward
the wood, and the pin driven back, it will do the
business verv nicelv."
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"From White Horse to La Barge is about
thirty miles and in the course of some four
hours' run I made the lake, only to find it full
of solid ice, and with a long line of boats wait-
ing to get through. Among the crowd was my
competitor. So that night we became very well
acquainted with each other. Between us we
arranged a concert amidst the silence of the
audience of whites and Indians, and to the ac-
companiment of mosquitoes' humming and
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droning we gave a very creditable entertain-
ment, indeed.
"We were stalled at the lake two days, when
a report began to circulate that the mail canoe
for Dawson was trying to work around the shore
ice so as to get the mail through next day. This,
indeed, did happen, so we followed the experi-
enced river men who were carrying the mail
and managed by strenuous work to make fifteen
miles that day through the ice. When we
reached camp that night we were thoroughly
exhausted. To make matters worse for ray com-
petitor, his cylinder head cracked, owing to the
very low temperature that sometimes obtains at
night in this Northern latitude, even in the mid-
dle of Summer, so that put his boat out of com-
mission as a motor boat. At this point, there-
fore, I passed him and won the race into Daw-
son by two days.
"Working Dawson was strenuous business,
with two piano tuners in a small mining camp
at one time. Between us we gave the citizens
of that Northern town enough harmony to last
them all Summer. I pulled out of this camp
as soon as I had done all the business I could.
"I then made a quick run of forty-four miles
to the Forty Mile River and thence to Eagle
City, Alaska, which is just over the line from
the Yukon territory. Here on the evening of
the second day came along my competitor with
his motor repaired and the engine humming.
He had had it repaired at Dawson. I watched
him as he rounded the bend of the river and
listened to his boat for a long time.
"The next town from Eagle City is Circle and
here there were no pianos at all. The distance
from Eagle is one hundred and ninety miles.
Here start the Yukon Flats, where the river
widens out into shallow, difficult channels and
is twenty miles across. These flats extend for
three hundred miles through a flat, swampy
country, as dreary and forsaken a part of the
world as one can find. During the first part of
this journey Brandt had passed me again at
these Yukon Flats. But still those Flats had to
be run and the man who makes a mistake and
gets lost in one of the blind channels which
arc so numerous may stay there for weeks, and
perhaps never get out at all. I figured that just
this might happen to the nervy lad who insisted
on going ahead, and, as a matter of fact, he did
get lost for two weeks in these Flats. I did not
see him again till three weeks later, when he
came into Fairbanks red, sun-burned and full of
pep.
"The reason for my getting into Fairbanks
ahead was to be found in the fact that I had
with me an Indian pilot who took me through
the Flats safely, for otherwise I might have
been lost, too. Safety first in these cases!
"We worked Fairbanks together and here
(Continued on page 12)
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