•[ Dean Randall asked, "Can any of the nickelodeon experts on [ this list tell me what note the first _plain wire_ string is?" The tuning of our Seeburg "L": The first _plain wire_ string is A#, which equates to the third A# on a standard piano. I am not sure if this is correct, but our nickelodeon ...

•Greetings all, I'd like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who responded to my request for information about the pitch of the first plain wire string on a Seeburg L. So -- thanks to Art Reblitz, Craig Brougher, Bruce Clark, Jack Conway, George Bogatko, Don Teach, Robbie, and the others who k...

•Greetings from New Zealand! As we have now finished the rebuild of our 92-key Decap organ, I have been seeking the views of some respected figures in the world of mechanical music on a philosophical point regarding tuning. You may know that the "tremulant" action in this type of organ is not really...

•Craig Brougher wrote [020328 MMDigest]: > I chip up my strings just once after I have strung the entire piano > and put them all "in the cracks." That means about 20 cents sharp. > Then I tune it down (in general) to A=440Hz +5 cents ... The old idea > that "strings need to stretch first", and that...

•I will make a few points that some tuners from my past, 1963-1966, at two different schools gave me in relation to tuning a piano. Edwin Hofmire, who worked for a piano company after WW1, told me that pianos were tuned at least 12 times before they left the factory, whereas most pianos coming from ...

•The jazz flutes in a dance organ should be tuned with the tremulant switched off. The pallet operated holes in the back of each pipe will therefore be closed. Jazz flutes are sometimes played with the tremulant off, according to the arranger's wishes, so tuning any other way will make this rank out...

•Greetings from Holland to Michael down there! Jazz flute ranks and vibratones cannot be tuned with the pallets open. The large leak hole is so near to the pipe mouth (actually it is opposite to it) that the pipes will not sound with open pallet! Tuning these pipes against another (octave) rank with...

•I have been a professional concert technician for many years and have tuned for three symphony orchestras. I currently maintain the pianos at the Ham Performing Arts Center in Las Vegas. I have had the opportunity to work with many respected names. Most are reasonable to work with. I generally prep...

•Actually, the number of times a piano with new strings needs to be tuned depends greatly upon the procedures used to bring it up to pitch to begin with. I'll try to explain. Most amateur tuners (and some pros, for that matter) go about raising the pitch completely wrong. Be it an old string or new...

•I think D.L. Bullock would be interested in a book called "Piano Rebuilder's Handbook of Treble String Tensions and Other Characteristics." It is complied by James H. Donelson and is probably still available. In this book is a computer-generated listing of all sizes and lengths of treble string use...

•It's well worth reading Samuel Wolfenden's book, "The Art of Pianoforte Construction", written in 1916 with a supplement in 1927. He covers this subject with great clarity. Wolfenden was chief technician for Aeolian in the UK and is still widely quoted in piano technology writing today. His descrip...

•Just a quick email to let everyone know that I am in complete agreement with everything (excepting one point) D.L. Bullock wrote in 020329 MMDigest concerning the stringing of pianos. Having worked for a Kawai dealer (and owning the very best Kawai GS-40 grand you ever encountered) I truly believe ...

•I just came on to this topic in today's posting. The topic of pitch raising and overpull has been discussed extensively on the Pianotech discussion list. Search their archives: http://www.ptg.org/ http://www.ptg.org/tech.htm http://www.ptg.org/archive/pianotech/ New wire will stretch for a period u...

•> On an older piano the strings are pretty much stretched so the > only reason for the piano going flat is plate compression and > case deformation. I would like to clarify this statement. I was referring to the piano going flat during a pitch raising, not the loss of tension over a period of time...

•As a few more asides to stringing an old piano with new music wire, I'd like to comment a bit more on some ideas mentioned here. As I said in my first post, I have never had to tune a piano more than once to get it stable after I strung it and chipped it about 20 cents above pitch the first time. I...

•Having no practical experience of tuning, still a thought appears in my engineer's mind on how to reduce the number of tuning rounds after restringing a piano. For the matter of explanation I will use a few very round figures: On one hand, the total stretching force on all strings in a piano is to ...

•My old Dallas friend, Bill Flynt, wrote, "We found that if we did the tuning as usual with the trem 'off', all was okay until the trem was turned 'on' (the usual, with tibia pipes). The rank sounded badly out of tune, although I don't remember whether sharp or flat. We decided to do the tuning with...

•Hello, I am a French lover of mechanical music ... it is why my English is not perfect ! I have a pneumatic piano named "le guillola" (manufacturer: A. Guillot of Paris), No. 1 bis serial number 14128. I restored all the mechanics myself some years ago with the help of a fantastic man in Paris, Dou...

•Good morning everybody, I hope somebody can help me: I've restored a Symphonion "Roccocco" music box for a museum in Budapest, Hungary. Here are all the data I know about it: "Schutz Marke Made in Germany (Leipzig) DRP patented, Brevete S.G.D.G." The plate diameter is 30 cm [11-3/4"]. I found only ...

•Dear Janos, I'm not entirely sure of your description of the positioning of the combs in this box, but I'm assuming it's the typical Symphonion arrangement where the pressure bar crosses the entire disc and each of the two combs is at either end of the pressure bar, thus basically crossing the full...