Get In Tune

I had some fascinating instruction into the methods of piano tuning today, courtesy of John Bishop from Get In Tune. I had intended to show him the piano and then go back to work leaving him to his, but plans changed. We explored how a broken tape would allow a jack to lean too far forward when the action was replaced, regulating the height of the keys, voicing the hammers, aligning the back checks, seeing how the felt wears in the bushes, nickel pins get loose, and twangs and slaps end up in strings. We saw how more corroded strings sounded (and looked) duller.

Even more intersting was discussion about tuning theory. Equal temperaments, as opposed to well tempered perhaps, requires sharp major thirds, flat minor thirds, listening to the slowing beats with descending major thirds - C-E, B-D#, Bb-D, A-C#, Ab-C, G-B). John tuned one note to a "perfect" major third for me, to demonstrate just how different the sound is from an equal tempered major third. There was one string that showed a detectable beat, even with its peers damped, implying that the string cross-section was probably not uniformly circular. He warned that learning too much about tuning might reveal too much about the imperfections, and that one might never enjoy piano sounds again.

We talked about octave stretching and the reasons for it - inflexible wire means that the harmonic modes don't have a "point" node in the middle - they have something more like a segment of finite length, meaning that the harmonic is the result of a slightly shorter length of string vibrating, so an octave harmonic is slightly sharp - meaning that to line a low note's harmonics up with the notes octaves above, it needs to be tuned flat (and high notes need to be sharper).

John must have detected the engineer in me - unlike just about every other piano tuner I can remember, his attitude was that any serious pianist should have piano tuning gear, and be able to fix up the odd note themselves. He left me a few spare tapes and a lot of encouragement. When his book comes out (in the Haynes series - more well known for DIY car servicing), I'll definitely buy a copy. So if you need a piano tuner in the West Midlands area (or wider), I recommend you Get In Tune.

Needless to say, the 1894 Steinway sounds orders of magnitude better now!