•Ron Schmuck asks for an instrument tuner. I can recommend the Korg CA-30. This is a fully chromatic tuner that can be adjusted from A-440 down to A-410 and up to A-480 in 1 Hz intervals. This is ideal for most musical instruments made back into the 19th Century. It only does equal temperament but t...

•In the second paragraph of my posting yesterday, of course I meant to say "20th century pianos." Many 19th century pianos were tuned to other pitches and shouldn't be raised to modern pitch. Art Reblitz [ I'll revise the text at the MMD Archives, too. -- Editor (Robbie)

•Readers may find some interesting reading about concert pitch at http://www.wam.hr/Arhiva/US/Cavanagh_440Hz.pdf some of which appears to have been copied to the Wikipedia article on the subject, and especially at http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory27.htm I had not known, for instance, that the org...

•I remember hearing a piano tuner say years ago that on really loose tuning pins, his father would pull out the pin, squirt in boiled linseed oil and put the pin back in. I presume that this would swell the wood around the pin. Anyone ever hear of this trick and does it work? Bryan Smith [ Many MMD ...

•What works really well is very thin "Crazy Glue" that is as thin as water. You can buy it at any hobby shop. I use a piano tipper and lay the piano on its back and with a syringe put a few drops of glue down around the pin. It will not lock the pin but will expand the wood, tightening the pin. I us...

•[ Ref. Bryan Smith in 110808 MMDigest ] Since it takes some time for linseed oil to set up, I can only envision this practice causing a complete mess. In a grand piano the linseed oil would run straight down onto the action below; in an upright it would likely run out the bottom of the hole and dow...

•I'm guessing boiled linseed oil would work better than linseed oil at room temperature, but never tried it or heard of it being used. Traditionally piano techs would take the pins out and varnish the holes and/or add sandpaper. Many old piano hacks would even use the back of the tuning "wrench leve...

•[ Bill Maguire wrote in 110809 MMDigest -- > Many old piano hacks would even use the back of the tuning > "wrench lever" to hammer in the pins (which is why it's called > a "tuning hammer" to this day). Why? I don't know. Old harpsichord tuning pins were tapered. Thus, if they were loose, they woul...

•Mark Ritzenheim's advices are hitting the pin on its head! I never would even think of using anything else but a pinblock and pins -- no glue, no oil, no nothing. But I'm an old-fashioned guy, you know! Jan Kijlstra The Netherlands

•I can add to this that I knew technicians who would remove the loose pin and then hammer it back in with a strip of veneer around it. I have seen this work and I have also seen this not work. I personally would never do it like that unless in an emergency. I must also add that I once repinned a gra...

•Hello -- I have a 1916 Mason-Hamlin AA grand that seems to have been rebuilt sometime in the past. I doped the block with a thin super glue and they are tight now. However, the tenor section (2nd last to the top) always goes out before the rest. My excellent tuner (and others) said as they are tigh...

•Only 150 Temperaments? Hi All, Admittedly, I have to chuckle whenever I hear conversations about piano tuning, especially if someone says it 'must be' this way or 'that way' to be 'correct'. I think it's much more accurate to say that there are as many different temperaments as there are scale desi...

•We have had several piano tuners over the years tune the pianos in our music store. Some have used electronic tuning aids that ranged from a simple one-note electronic tuning fork to those fancy tuners with different scales programmed. I can honestly say that I have been surrounded by some of the b...

•The Piano Technicians Guild (PTG) has an "aural tuning requirement" in order to become a Registered Piano Technician (RPT). Yet in January 1997, at the PTG's "Great Chicago Tune-off", Jim Coleman tuned his piano using electronic tuning devices while Virgil Smith tuned his by ear. These were the bes...

•Don Teach is right: no electronic tuning device can touch the human ear. But most clients will not be able to hear what a skilled human tuner does hear. An electronic tuning aid, on the other hand, can improve the tuning qualities of an average human tuner. It can also speed up the tuning. And does...

•The Piano Technicians Guild did several tuning competitions in the 1990s and there was a pretty even split between the professional tuners who liked the aural tuning and electronically aided tunings. An electronic tuning device when used properly is an aid to listening, not a replacement. It has be...

•Hi All, I am in total agreement with John Tuttle's and Don Teach's comments on electronic tuning aids for pianos. They are a dead waste of a shilling (a nickel over there); they do not take into account the need to "stretch" the tuning as you ascend the octaves or account for the compression of the...

•As an Registered Piano Technician (RPT) I was required to learn how to tune aurally in order to pass the tuning portion of the exams, but almost immediately after passing I switched to an ETD (Electronic Tuning Device). I have tuned thousands of pianos this way, including concerts for some of the b...

•Hi, I would just like to reiterate that I totally agree with the comments made by John Tuttle and Don Teach about electronic tuning aids. Why my agreement with them should have stirred up such an abundance of "corrective" mail to me personally, I really don't know. Personally, I don't do piano tuni...

•Hello all, After some years, I just tried to tune a Steck Duo-Art and discovered that the tuning hammer I have from Germany (10 years old, never used), with Hale type extra-long star tip, does not fit correctly onto the pins. It goes on but it rocks in and out then slips off or falls off unless pre...