Story and Clark not tuned for 30 years!!

[Andrew and Rebeca Anderson]

>I didn't dare raise it to pitch because it had been so long since it 
>was tuned. I just tuned it to itself. It was the most horribly out 
>of tune piano I have tuned in my short career. When I was over, it 
>still sounded terrible to me, but the customer was thrilled. He said 
>it was the best he ever heard it sound (he's not a piano player). I 
>was honest and didn't pretend that I was happy with how it sounded. 
>I told him that it would take several tunings to make it sound good. 
>He's having me back in six months to give it another tuning.

Huh, why not?.  I've tuned century old uprights that the owners were 
absolutely certain hadn't been tuned in 70 years back up to 
pitch.  First pass to pitch.  Second pass with over-pull to keep 
pitch and third to fine tune.  I did let each string down first to 
break rust bonds and then pulled it up.  Not a single broken string 
and it was rusty.  It had adequate pin tension a little on the low side.

>The pins seemed to twist before they moved, making the instrument 
>very hard to tune. When I moved my tuning hammer, the pitch would go 
>up, then go down when I released it. I ended up very carefully 
>applying constant pressure to the tuning hammer until I felt the 
>tuning pin turn a little. It worked for me, though it took a long 
>time. As far as hammer technique goes, was that something you would have done?

I have brand-new Bostons here at the all Steinway School that twist a 
lot of cycles before the foot budges.  Makes for a difficult session 
to get a stable tuning.  What seems to speed things up is little 
jerks on the hammer.  Slowly pulling the pin up until it budges is a 
recipe for broken stings.

Andrew Anderson