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MAY
THE
10, 1924
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
11
TECHNICAL DEPARTMENT
Conducted By William Braid White
stringing system of another kind. Their iron
plate was fitted with a set of iron studs, each
occupying a position which otherwise would be
occupied by the ordinary pin driven into a
wooden block behind. Each stud was provided
The Wegman Pin System and the Proper Method in Handling It—A Piano Inventor Who with a head in the form of a nut squared to
fit a tuning hammer. The string was gripped
Anticipated Half the Inventions of Later-Day Piano Construction—The Mason & Hamlin
between the head and the stud, and its tension
System—Are the Tuners Hide-bound in Tradition—Smoked Piano Keys
increased or diminished according as the head
UGENE SMETANA, of Philadelphia, other shape will hold the pin firmly in place. was turned to right or to left. This system was
wants to know about the old Wegman It is a case of a round peg in an oval hole, and never tried out with any completeness, I believe,
tuning-pin system. He says to me, says I cannot imagine what reason anyone should and was in due time abandoned.
he, "will you please tell me why the Wegman have for saying that such a piano cannot be
Mason & Hamlin
pianos with the oval tuning pins are so hard to tuned. On the contrary, my experience has been
Only the other day, at the house of one of
tune? One of my friends says that you are quite that these pianos are very reliable and durable the astronomers attached to the great Yerkes
out of luck if you have to tune one of them. in respect of standing in tune, and are, in fact, Observatory, Williams Bay, Wis., I was looking
I myself never had one of them and so the whole on the whole, better than most wrest-plank at a fine Mason & Hamlin grand equipped with
pianos.
thing remains a puzzle to me."
the stringing system which this house made
The whole trick, which is very simple, consists famous years ago and which later on (I am
This is the sort of question I like to answer,
because it is the sort of question which allows in remembering to wedge the pin into the oval sure, regretfully) it was obliged to abandon. I
me to wander off by myself, as it were, and half of the plate hole. This is easily done by never cease to admire this wholly admirable sys-
make of my answer almost anything I like. I much the same wrist motion as is used for turn- tem, which ought to have been taken up en-
can go off from the main path and deliver a ing the pin in the ordinary wrest plank, save thusiastically by the tuners instead of by them
being mocked at and treated with contumely.
sermon on almost any pertinent topic before I that the pull is always slightly downward.
Pity the Inventors
The whole thing is very simple. A continuous
have done with the original question; which
One never can help being sorry for the men iron shoulder is cast in the plate, just about
is why such questions are always more than
welcome. But it will perhaps be best to dis- who put their time and labor into the task, the where the lowest row of tuning pins would come
pose of the plain statement first. So here goes. very thankless task, too, of designing improved in an ordinary system. This shoulder is drilled
I do not know, to be candid about it, why tuning-pin systems. Perhaps I should say with as many holes as there are strings, each
anyone should ever feel bad about having to "stringing" systems, for some of them did not hole being of about (subject to correction, as I
tune a Wegman piano with the patent tuning- use tuning pins at all. Most of them have been depend on memory) J^-inch in diameter. In
pin plate arrangement. The pianos have not practical and good. Some were undoubtedly each of these threaded holes is placed a steel
been made for some years, but since there are a more scientifically and mechanically efficient rod, at the lower end of which is a slot through
great many of them still out around the country, than any wrest-plank system ever has been or which to thread the end of the wire, while at the
and seeing that both Brother Smetana and other could be; yet they have all perished. Why? other end a nut is threaded. This nut rests
tuners who do not understand them may some Well, that is something to be considered later on. upon the upper side of the cast-iron shoulder,
For the moment let us rather cast back our so that as it is turned the rod rises or falls,
day have to deal with this system, it will be well
to say a few words of description and explana- historical vision to the year 1800 and look at carrying the string with it.
the work of that astonishing innovator Hawkins.
I have tuned many of these pianos and can
tion.
This man produced an upright piano in days simply say, as I have said often before, that
Wegman Pin System Described
In the Wegman system the tuning-pin block when the original grand was itself in a state of when they are well tuned they are wonderful.
or wrest plank is eliminated, although there is doubtful evolution, and in it assembled a bundle There is really no difficulty about tuning them.
nothing in the outward appearance to show this. of absolutely novel devices, such as the mind of One simply has to use the light key which is
When the pin is set into place it looks just like man hardly ever at one time has thought out in furnished with each instrument, and turn the pin
an ordinary one, but when it is taken out it is connection with a single musical instrument. He to the right to sharp and to the left to flat. A
seen to have been cut off square a short distance was ahead of his time, just as Hope-Jones, a test blow sharps rather than flats, and the trick
below the tuning-pin eye. The drilled hole in century later, was found to be in the realm of then is to get below the desired pitch always and
the full iron plate may then be examined and the organ. Hawkins anticipated half the inven- then come up until one is just a very little below
will be found to be shaped, not as a circle, but tions of later-day piano construction. He had the intended point when a test blow will bring
in two halves, the top half being circular and an independent iron frame within which his one the rest of the way. Many years have now
the lower half oval. When one therefore is tun- soundboard was suspended. He had a novel elapsed since the house of Mason & Hamlin
ing it is only necessary to work the pin down- system of scaling, scientifically most interesting. abandoned this fine system, nor can we ever
wards into the oval or lower half of the hole, And he devised a practical mechanical stringing cease to regret the necessity for the step.
when the friction between the steel of the pin system.
Are We Hide-bound?
Hawkins Mechanical Stringer
in one shape and the iron of the plate in an-
But when we come to ask why this should
This last claims our careful attention, since have been necessary the answer is not so diffi-
most of Hawkins' successors followed his prin- cult. It is an answer, moreover, which we can
Send for This Valuable
ciple. The original instrument is still preserved apply to all other cases I have mentioned, and
Free Book
in the museum of Messrs. Broadwood, in Lon-
(Continued on page 12)
One of the surest ways to Increase
don, and the facts are therefore readily ascer-
jour profits is to repair mars and
ncratches immediately. If your prospec-
tainable. Hawkins' scheme uses a vertically
tive customer sees a defect in the finish
your chance of making a gale is greatly
placed threaded pin, one end of which is squared
diminished.
"How to Repair Damage to Var-
to receive a tuning key, while the other is
nished Surfaces" tells how you can in-
•tantly repair any injury to the finish
Piano Key Repairing
made in the shape of a truncated cone to abut
of musical instruments or fine furniture.
It will interest any dealer, tuner or
against
a
continuous
iron
lug
cast
in
the
iron
GRAINED IVORINE, Per Set Keys
$8.00
repair man.
plate. The threaded part of the pin works in a
WRITE FOR FREE COPY TODAY
CELLULOID, Per Set Keys
7.00
If you are too busy to write a letter, pin
female threaded socket on which the string is
COMPOSITION, Per Set Keys
10.00
this ad to your card or letterhead and mail
it to us. We'll know what you want.
fastened, so that when the pin is turned to right
All Work and Deliveries by Parcels Post in
Two Weeks Guaranteed
The M. L. Campbell Company
or to left the socket rises or falls accordingly,
232S Penn
Kansas City, Mo.
thus tightening or loosening the string. Here
HARLEM 1PIAN0 & ORGAN KEY CO.
is a practical mechanical system without a doubt.
John C. Vonderlippe, Proprietor
Some thirty-five years or more ago Conover
882 River Road
Edgewater, N. J.
FAUST SCHOOL
Brothers, of Chicago, brought out a mechanical
Telephone Cliffside 879-M
Improved Tuning-Pin Systems and the
Problems They Present to the Tuners
E
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OF TUNING
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TUNERS
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BASS STRINGS
•••elal itUntUR |IVM to tlM Mtdt »f t*« tuner art the dealer
OTTO R. TREFZ,
Jr.
Philadelphia, Pa.
2110 Falrmount Avenue
Established 1901
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Pioneer school of piano, player-piano and Reproducing
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