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PRACTICAL PIANO TUNING
By ALEXANDER HART
Formerly with Steinway & Sons Tuning Department, Instructor in
Piano Tuning, Teachers College, Columbia University, N. Y.
Registered Member of the
National Association of Piano Tuners
CHAPTER 20 - Piano Tuning in Review
No. 25
Items of Interest
We now come to inserting a new
llange pin that is too tight in its bush-
ing. It is well to remember that flange
pins must always fit tight in the wood
. . . and work easy around the bushing
cloth. Always carry a few sizes of pins
with you, for you never can tell when
you are all out of flanges.
The writer does not endorse the idea
of re-bushing Manges. New ones are so
reasonable that it does not even pay to
bother.
(a) First remove pin from the new
flange and see what gauge num-
ber it is. Then take your pin
punch and remove pin from the
flange that is attached to the
butt.
(b) Be cautious not to let your pin
punch slip, and do not hold
punch over bushing cloth, but
with right hand try to get the
punch in center of pin so that
the punch will not slip. This will
move the pin out of the bushing
part way, allowing you to use
pliers to pull the pin out of the
wood. Don't forget, in replacing
pin, it is to be tight in the
wood.
(c) Now take a new pin, and try the
size, first on the butt, and then
on the flange bushing. It may be
necessary to ream the bushing
cloth so that the pin can be
pushed through with the thumb
nail, and when fastening flange
to the butt, be careful to have
it centered by using a needle.
Then insert the pin, and hammer
it in place. Clip the end off and
file pin even on both sides of
the flange.
No. 26
If any piano tuner knows the secret
of how to stop a string from breaking
at the wrong time, and which one will
24
snap in the treble or bass, he will
clean up a fortune.
A tuner who can replace a broken
string neatly, with the same number of
wire, taking special care to make the
coil even and setting pin in the right
eight as the others, can be considered
a good workman.
Since putting on a string is an in-
tegral part of the tuner's job, we might
as well face it and learn how. I know
if I were a piano dealer, and did not
know much about the mechanics of
piano repairs, one of the first moves
would be to get myself organized, and
then learn (1) how to put a string on,
(2) how to pull up a string if it is a lit-
tle flat to the others.
I would try to acquaint myself with
just enough knowledge (for emergency
sake) so that self-assurance of this
kind would be a fine asset in case I
were left in such a manner so unavoid-
able, that one can never tell when first
aid to piano repairs might come U»
the rescue.
No. 28
Let us return to putting on the string.
In case you have no gauge, the number
of steel wire is marked on the pin
block, 13-14-15-16-17-18-19-20-21. It
will pay to have a coil of each number
on hand, for you never know when a
string may break.
Demonstration
Turn tuning pin from one-half to a
'full turn to the left, then with a small
screwdriver remove coil from the pin.
You will note a small hole in the pin
where the string passes through that
enables one to use a screwdriver to lift
coil away from the pin, that is already
loosened by the turn you gave it. Then
life your action forward so that there
is clearance between dampers and the
strings, giving you a free hand to re-
move string without damage to any of
the dampers.
Should the broken string; be in the
extreme treble section, there is no need
to take the action out, but in the event
the breakage happens to be in the middle
section, the action must be taken out.
No. 29
Just a word about removing piano
actions. Lifting it out is one thing . . .
putting it back another, for if it hap-
pens to be one of the old uprights, the
bridle straps may be broken. This sepa-
rates the wliippen from the hammer
butt, and when you replace the action,
instead of the abstract Or extension
guide resting on the capston screw it
falls behind it. The jack also falls at
the extreme back of the butt instead of
resting on the cushing snugly under the
heel of the butt.
Precautionary measures are evident
when doing this kind of lifting actions
out and putting them back in place.
Furthermore, a liability of the extension
guide breaking can be avoided.
Du Mont Announces Price
Increases Effective Sept. 1
A price increase on Du Mont tele-
vision sets ranging up to approximately
10 per cent on all current models will
go into effect on September 1, 1950, it
was declared late last month by Walter
L. Stickel, national sales manager for
the receiver sales division of the Allen B.
Du Mont Laboratories, Inc.
In announcing the increase, Stickel
made the following statement:
"The TV industry is faced with rather
critical shortages in certain electronic
parts. Increased government buying is
imposing further restriction on these
components and already there have been
some substantial price increases among
them. There is every reason to believe
that in the near future this trend will
continue. "Though nothing is being left
undone to overcome these handicaps,
nevertheless production costs have been
adversely affected."
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, AUCUST, 1950