•In MMD 000307 Philippe Rouille asked for details on how to tune a Triola. Kevin McElhone has asked several times for roll listings for various instruments, including the Triola. These notes attempt to answer both requests, and to provide some general information about the instrument. The Triola is ...

•Many thanks to John Wolff (Australia) for his answer to my request, with the fine description and the details he gave yesterday about playing and tuning a Triola mechanical zither, and his list of music rolls. I am very puzzled by a sentence in his description: "With his third hand, the operator wo...

•Blued or nickel tuning pins -- Yes, it is a quandary. I happen to like nickel plated myself. It looks better, it prevents rust. It does not get black as fast. However, it is not historic. If I am doing a job for a customer or myself, I usually use nickel. However, I also do many historic museum res...

•At the risk of offending the sensibilities of some of the purists, I would like to extol the virtues of gold-plated tuning pins. I considered nickel-plating for my Mason & Hamlin Ampico, my one-and- only mechanical musical instrument, and decided they were too garish, so I looked into using gold. I...

•-- forwarded message, please reply to sender and MMD -- What is the best course available or direction to take for someone who is wanting to start a business tuning pianos? Thanks for your time. Gary Wilson

•Gary Wilson wrote, "What is the best course available or direction to take for someone who is wanting to start a business tuning pianos?" You do not tell us your age, but if you are young, all the better. I tuned my first piano at age 12. I suggest you do not use a school or course. I have never be...

•My Wurlitzer Style 145B band organ stays in tune rather permanently when stored or used at or around room temperature conditions (65 to 75 deg. F., 50% to 70% RH). On two occasions several years apart, extended power failures (no, we don't live in Northern California!) allowed the band organs tempe...

•Hi all, In response to Bill Finch's post in 01-28-01 MMD regarding tuning stability, I too have encountered the same problem. I am not as lucky to be able to store the band organ indoors where the temperature is constant. Its home is in the garage, here in Washington state. I have kept the garage h...

•Several days ago, Bill Masterman, of Tacoma, WA, had some questions and comments regarding storage of band organs and resulting tuning issues. He made mention of my Wurlitzer 153, which seems to remain in tune very well, although it has not been stored in a heated area for many years. Robbie commen...

•This article presents Werckmeister temperament viewed by fifths instead of in chromatic order. Refer to the previous article by Hans van Oost, "Werckmeister Tuning for Wilhelm Bruder Organ", in 010222 MMDigest. The principle of the Werckmeister tuning is the division of the Pythagoraic comma (24 ce...

•Many thanks to everyone who wrote concerning my request for band organ tuning information. The data provided will be of great help. Regards, John Kadlec

•Years back, there was a thread on the benefits of tuning a Wurlitzer 150 roll playing band organ to a temperament titled "just tuning". The idea is thrown out in the Archives, but nobody reported trying it. I was wondering if anyone has since tried this tuning method, and if so, what were the resul...

•I've been following your letters about the player pianos still in existence. We purchased our Bellak player piano many years ago and it played very well without any restoration on our part. About four years ago I thought I would treat the piano to a tuning. With recommendation, I had a piano tuner ...

•Hello to all, This is in response to Paul Murphy's letter of the 17th instant. I have done some piano tuning and still tune pipe organs for a firm in Dallas, Texas. I have done some tuning by ear (temperament setting) without any electronic aid but now I use a Korg tuner to set temperament. I am ab...

•Look for hoses not connected, and wire rods not re-connected. They are in the tuner's way, and he might not remember to reconnect them. A real tuner found four problems on my wife's piano. He fixed the left hand stuff to do something, and made the piano much easier to pump (no leaks then), and adju...

•Hi Rae Walzer: Tuning a player is frustrating to some tuners because the upper player stack makes it difficult to mute the strings for tuning. In the tuning process a tube might have been disconnected to the roll drive. Your description is to vague to know for certain. I would offer to speak by pho...

•I doubt that the tuner's "anti player attitude" had much to do with it. More than likely, in the process of tuning he disturbed a dry rotted piece of vacuum tubing or hose, resulting in enough lost vacuum to disable the player. (This could easily happen with the air motor hose). If so, simply repla...

•Hi All, Rae Walzer wants to know if there's something simple that could have been done to his player piano when it was tuned that is causing it not to play now. The answer is "Yes". First, check to see that the vacuum hose leading to the air-motor is connected. Often a piano tuner will remove the a...

•The first thing I do when arriving to tune a player piano is to put a roll on and try the player, so that I will know how well it works, and therefore how well the customer will have a right to expect it to work when I am finished. I try to foresee any possible damage that the process will do to ro...

•The joys of the repair business [ Bill Maxim wrote in 010719 MMDigest: ] > The first thing I do when arriving to tune a player piano is to put > a roll on and try the player, so that I will know how well it works, > and therefore how well the customer will have a right to expect it > to work when I...