•Two cents worth... I agree totally with D. L. Bullock [000209 MMD]. I've been doing the loose pin shuffle for quite awhile now. Most customers can't see putting the bucks in for re-stringing and pinblock repairs. I do a lot of either pin shimming (using those metal sleeves from Schaff: they _do_ wo...

•Does anyone know if the standard Reproduco organ and piano were originally tuned to A400 or A435 Hz. Also, does anyone have one with the original mandolin rail intact so I might know what kind of rail to install? Thanks. Having a great time indoors with the toys as we run out of water here in Georg...

•In reply to questions about the Reproduco, posed by John McClure, I offer the following: First a disclaimer: I can not guarantee these answers as being beyond doubt correct, I can only state that this is what I have done with my own Reproduco, and feel the results are most satisfactory. My piano is...

•Hello to everyone. My Chickering grand is getting a new pinblock. I am installing a Bulduc pinblock and will be marking the pinblock with a punch once I get the pinblock properly fitted to the plate. Since the drilled tuning pin holes will be angled 7 degrees, but the hardwood tuning pin bushings a...

•To answer Mr. Toto's question about alignment of the hole in the tuning pin bushing and the boring in the pinblock; the bushing is a turning of soft white birch, with a hole in the center a little smaller than the smallest tuning pin diameter. As the pin is driven into the bushing, the hole in the ...

•The slant does not have to be 7 degrees. This it too great an angle for many pianos. The angle you need to be concerned about is between the tuning pin and wire travelling to the counter bearing bar. The wire should leave the tuning pin at 90 degrees. So the angle of the pin is established by the h...

•Equal temperament is most widely used today, and the one most familiar to us. Temperament within an octave must be established before any tuning is considered. Temperament is the mathematical relationship between notes within an octave (the spacing). Few people are familiar with other exotic temper...

•I urgently need to know, for Herman Lokenberg in Netherlands, the tuning scale of the 19-note Aristonette. It's like the standard 24-note Ariston, but smaller scale. Do you have an instrument? He has 3 missing reeds, and although I have the tuning scale of many machines, this one is missing from my...

•My local library was able to find a copy of a piano tuning correspondence course. I believe it was from a Wisconsin library. I don't recall the name of the company, but it was in the bibliography of Reblitz's Piano Tuning and Restoration book (which also has information on tuning). The content seem...

•Hi, I have a bit of a problem and I would appreciate some help from owners and restorers of barrel organs. I am restoring an organ made by D. Poirot of Mirecourt, France. It has 26 keys. There are 3 bass pipes, 8 single pipes and 15 pairs of pipes. The pipes are in terrible shape (they're falling a...

•Hi All, I thought you all might be interested to learn that in the northern part of New Jersey, piano tuners now command $95.00 for a regular piano tuning! That's not a typo: $95.00 ! As a result of discovering this information, my prices went from $72.00/hr (for labor) to $80.00/hr today. I guess ...

•The recent thread regarding band organ tuning stability brought to mind a related inquiry. I recently acquired a 56er Wilhelm Bruder book operated organ. Included with the organ was a small book which plays all notes of the scale in sequence, and then plays various octaves and intervals. I assume t...

•Without having seen the book music, I think that John Kadlec's assumption is right (010221 MMDigest). It is probably a tuning book that was usually delivered with all new organs; unfortunately many of these books were lost or just taken away by organ tuners. Tuning a band organ starts with "laying ...

•I have a problem with "jumping" tuning pins. I have not tuned the piano for the last three years. I have had the temperature higher than I used to have and I believe the wood has "dried" too much. What I find now is the pins are harder to break loose and a cracking noise is heard each time. Just wh...

•Some years back, Samick made a console that had 'jumpy' tuning pins. Their suggestion was to "work" the pins aggressively by lowering the pitch significantly, and then raising it back up. (Down, up, down, up, etc.) Has the pin block ever been treated with anything? Musically, John A. Tuttle ...

•I've had some success with removing the pin and putting chalk dust in the hole. Also dipping the pin in varnish and then reinstalling it sometimes works. While you have the pin out take time to clean the hole with a rifle cleaning brush. Good Luck Dick Day

•I can hardly believe some of the suggestions to overcome such a fundamental problem. The answer is simply to rebush, recenter, (using appropriately sized pins) and reaming as necessary until a proper fit is attained. Its not that big an issue. Are we all looking for quick fixes or are we trying to ...

•To return to problem on my piano: the tuning pins were as near perfect as you can get five years ago when I last tuned. I had the room hotter since acquiring a computer, which I am sure decreased the humidity quite a lot. The piano is circa 1930's console, a Weber, Kingston, Canada. One of the best...

•[ Ref.: "Wurlitzer Piano Could Be Disassembled for Shipment", [ by John A. Tuttle, 010730 MMDigest Hi John, The Wurlitzer piano you described has a pin design from the Beal Piano Company of Australia. The patent was used into the 1970s when the company went out of business. Australian technicians h...

•Hello! A friend of mine bought a very early 11-1/4" Polyphon wall hanging automata. It is a double comb machine, with the very wide, early teeth, 27 on one comb, 28 on the other. All the leads are lacking, and because of that it needs complete retuning. Can anybody help me with the tuning scale for...