Shipment 4

The reading and lessons from the Randy Potter School are getting more dense. Last week I received the 4th of the five shipments, including a vertical action model. There were "only" about four hundred more pages so I've begun working through them as I can.

I wish the shipment had arrived a few days earlier. Thursday evening I was asked to tune the grand being used by Opera Fest here in Key West for a concert the next evening. No problem with the tuning. However, all the bass dampers from A1 through B15 were sticking. How to fix dampers was in the supplement I received on Saturday. But my "guess" was correct. I managed to get 14 of the 15 working just as folks were walking in wearing their tuxedos.

It's great that folks are trusting me to work on their instruments already; but my skill sets are still very much in the formative stage. While I don't know the solution to every problem, fortunately I do know enough now to keep from harming anything. If I don't know what to do, I simply stop. My first rule of thumb is "do no harm"!

Okay, enough with the update for the evening. Back to the books!

Sooner than I'd planned

In addition to my continuing studies and work on Zelda, I took on my first paid tuning jobs rather unexpectedly this past week. I've been doing some tuning for friends for trade and/or free, but I really hadn't planned on doing any work professionally until I was a little deeper into the course...fear of success?

And no place to begin but at the top I suppose. Donna Roll, Chair of the Opera Department at the Longy Conservatory http://www.longy.edu/ in Cambridge, Massachusetts is in Key West for six weeks for a summer institute. She has advanced students from around the world as well as young people with promise who she's accepted into the program. The institute called Opera Fest is housed at Old Stone Church in Key West. And for those of you reading this who may reside here, don't walk; but run to hear the performances each Friday evening at 7:30.

The first night of their performances I was tuning the rehearsal pianos; but went this past Friday. I sat there hardly able to breathe in awe of the talent she's gathered in our little city. In just over a week she was able to produce a staged version of Puccini's Suor Angelica. It's a work with which I was unfamiliar; but filled with soaring melodies written with Puccini's seamless harmonies. It's also a tear jerker -- even without the translation, I don't think there was a dry eye in the house. The singing was perfection.

But back to tuning. The first piano I worked on was a 1948 Cable Nelson console that had apparently not been tuned since 1980. At least that's what the cards inside said. It was at least 75 cents flat (3/4 of a full pitch) throughout the piano. I worked on it for 5 full hours. I had to raise the pitch twice before attempting a fine tuning. When I checked it out during intermission this past Friday it was almost holding; at least 95% had stayed in pitch. The 5% out, of course, hurt. So I'll return this coming Wednesday to give it one more fine tuning. With all the rehearsing going on, it's gone from being an in-the-corner never used instrument to something that must be in tune.

As Dean Walters, who had invited me to work on the instruments, said "You might as well as cut your teeth on something tough." He got that part right! And I'm deeply appreciative that he gave me this early opportunity.

The second piano, also a Cable Nelson console (this one from 1955) was actually in pretty decent shape. While a little out of tune, only the bass section had sagged significantly. That one was a little more reasonable in terms of the time it took. Still 3 hours; but I wanted it to be as perfect as possible. I'll give it a quick check as well to see how it's holding.

Given the hours involved I think I'm probably making less on these first two jobs than I would be if I were working at McDonald's. But the pleasure of hearing that 1948 Cable Nelson sing for the first time in nearly 30 years was for me priceless; not to mention my first check was signed by Donna Roll! I think I'll laminate the bank deposit slip that shows an image of the check! It meant a lot to me to think I had some small roll in the success of her singers...at least their ears weren't hurting during rehearsals.

So all this got me to thinking. If I can tune for Donna Roll and Dean Walters, why not go ahead and start quietly tuning even before I complete the entire course? Most of the course is about repair, regulating, voicing, etc., which honestly you could spend a lifetime on and never learn it all. But I do already have the basics of the tuning part. The work at Old Stone gave me enough confidence to know I can do this well and, importantly, if I can start getting even occasional jobs it'll help support my Zelda and Yuri costs. Zelda's repairs are mostly affordable; but it's already obvious that I'm going to have to spend close to $2,000 just on parts alone for Yuri. Plus I'm trying to save money for what I think of as my "finals" in Bozeman, Montana this coming January. Even a few tuning jobs could go a long way in helping make all that a reality.

Net result? I started working on a business card to start leaving around town where I know musicians gather. I spent several nights this past week doing photography and playing around in Photoshop. The one shown in the picture above is still in the conceptual stage; but it's beginning to have the feel I'm looking for. I've a friend Sheri Lohr who's a graphic designer who'll hopefully be able to take it to where it needs to be as well as develop a logo from the elements.

But for now, it's just a big "thank you" to Dean and Donna for having enough confidence in me to help me get to the next step in my journey.

Key dips and aches...

The fun videos they show on YouTube showing how easily and quickly issues with key dip can be corrected have a dirty little secret. They always show somebody happily sitting fixing the natural keys. They never show someone working on the sharps. And now I know why -- you can't see them, you can't reach them, they're nearly impossible to measure correctly and you have to get down on your hand and knees to work on them.

That's what I learned this past Thursday.

Since I don't own the fancy Jaras sharp key dip/leveler device I figured out a way to jury rig my own tool with a t-square with a level built in. That's twice now that tool has turned into a handy solution for getting around the purchase of expensive tools from piano supply places. McGiver I'm not; but it is occasionally gratifying to figure out an alternative solution.

Once I knew out how to measure the sharp key dip accurately (I still don't get this "you'll feel it" stuff), I nonetheless had to resort to long needle nose pliers, rigging up lights and getting down on my hands and knees to reach in pull out the felts, put in the proper number of punchings and replace the felts. Thank goodness there aren't as many sharps. It took about four hours and my body simply ached in places I didn't even know I had when finished.

On the other hand, the Zelda's touch and response has improved immensely. There's much more control in almost every respect. Next steps will be regulating the action behind the keys and ultimately voicing.

After I finished putting her back together, I decided to give Zelda a quick tune. Moving the action in and out constantly has destabilized her a bit. The quick clean up turned into a major retune. I finished up at 1:30 am Friday. Even though I was exhausted from the 17 hour day, I couldn't help but playing her for a while afterwards. She, once again, sounds even more fabulous. Each step in the regulating process brings out a different nuance hidden in her bones.

Speaking of tuning; Friday evening I had my first paid tuning job for Donna Roll's Young Artists series hosted here in Key West. They've moved locations and the pianos at the new location have been (to be kind) neglected over the years. The one I worked on Friday hadn't been tuned since 1980. Not only was it out of tune with itself -- it was on average 75 cents flat throughout the piano -- not exactly something you teach young artists with. It took a while -- five hours -- to clean it up, raise the pitch and then finally tune it. But despite its years of of neglect was sounding pretty good last evening when finished. I'll go back in about a week to see how stable it is and give it another fine tuning.

Tomorrow after church, I'll tackle another of their instruments. Hopefully, it won't be quite as neglected. Nonetheless, working on these kind of instruments is probably the best way to get the experience I need.

By the way, back to Zelda, did I mention before I replaced any of the front rail felts, I polished out each front rail pin to help improve the key action? (see photo) Yet another of those many subtle steps needed to achieve a more beautiful sound.

Need to get to bed so I can be alert to handle tomorrow's tuning challenges --and whatever else the day may bring.

Touch regulation...

After my struggles with key height chronicled in the last post I decided to go back to Danny Boone's book Regulating Grand Piano Touch and Tone. And read it again. Duh, right there it was! Key height is governed primarily by the balance rail pin and to some lesser degree by the backcheck rail felt. That information was buried in one sentence on page 84. My guess as to what I'd done wrong was correct. But it was a hard way to learn that lesson.

The first three hours of Memorial Day was spent undoing what I'd done incorrectly; then setting the proper height with all the keys seated on the bed level with each other. It's amazing what a difference a paper punching only 3/1000 or 5/1000th of an inch thick can make. Gradually I got the feel for the correct sizes and how many to use. The book says with practice "you should become able to level the white keys in one or two passes". For me, it was more like four or five. And, of course, there are the sharps as well.

Since I didn't know what to order in the first place I got the "assortment package" of punchings both for balance rail pins and front rail pins. The good news is I had everything I needed. The bad news is I now have a lifetime supply -- they come in packages of 1000 and they sent about a dozen different sizes of each.

After setting the key heights, I squared, leveled and spaced Zelda's keys -- no gap teeth, please. Then it was time to set the hammer line.

This is where it gets pretty precise -- the hammers need to have a "blow distance" of 1 3/4 inch below the strings. So I took a level with a t-square built in and checked the height of Zelda's strings from the key bed. She really was built well. A hundred years later and the deviation is at most 1/64th of an inch on a few of the strings. I'd call that level.

So I rigged up a taut line at exactly the 1 3/4 distance below the string (see photo) height; then moved the action to the workbench. Another four hours of my Memorial Day holiday was happily spent adjusting the hammer line to the correct blow distance. The photo shows the hammers before adjustment -- some were less than a half inch away from the strings; others were over two and a half inches. The point of all this is to create an even touch and response. For those that are too close you couldn't get a forte if your life depended on it. For those too far, you could defintely get some power; but the sound would always be late --notes played at the same time would sound at different times.

But it isn't over yet! Touch isn't just about key height and hammer blow distance. It's also about making sure the distance that each key travels to exert a blow to the string is the same as the key next to it. Otherwise the pianist has no control. So the next four hours of my Memorial Day holiday was spent happily adjusting what's called "key dip".

While the punchings on the balance rail have more overall impact for their size, the range of motion for each key is incredibly varied. As precisely made as the keys are -- they are, after all, over a hundred years old. Time gives not only character but lots of variation. The number of punchings required to correct these variations multiply almost exponentially. Hmmm, maybe I don't have a lifetime supply after all -- at least not for front rail pins.

I completed all the natural keys. Stared at the clock -- 10:30 PM and realized that there wasn't an ounce of energy left to do anything else. And that's where I am now.

Last night I took a little time off to do some minor retuning -- all this moving in and out of action parts, etc. has had rattled the old girl a bit. Tonight I'm writing. And tomorrow, I turn my attention back to the key dip of the sharps. It'll be a bit more complex -- one, because the punchings are harder to get at; and two, because there are seven or eight "recommended" ways how to get the correct measurement. One book just says "go by feel" -- how do you feel 3/1000 of an inch and know if it's correct or not?

I bought a handy dandy Davis sharp leveler adjustment from Schaff. I'm going to carefully reread the instructions tomorrow morning (my last Thursday off before we start summer hours at the shop) and devote probably the next four hours to leveling out Zelda's sharps.

After that, I'm not sure. I'm thinking about beginning to play with some preliminary wood refinishing approaches in some test patches to see what looks best.

Or, if it's not 94 like it was today, I may actually take a bike ride around the island. Bending over a bench -- even happily -- for 10-12 hours making painstakingly precise adjustments is a little tough on the back.