The next meeting of the Boston Chapter PTG will be:
Tuesday, September 18
We will meet at
Jim Ialeggio’s shop
41 Parker Road
Shirley, MA
978-425-9026
6:00 PM Gather, Converse, Eat
7:00 PM Chapter Business Meeting
7:30 PM Technical Presentation
Extreme Chinese Grand Makeover
You know those Asian grands we all occasionally
have to tune? I mean the ones that are
completely un-tunable, strident, with actions which play like trucks?
I picked up one of these really horrible 6 ft Chinese grands cheap. This one, after trying to tune it for several painful years, I refused to service at all. It was absolutely un-tunable...a truly horrible instrument.
I wanted to know how far off this piano was from being an actual musical instrument. I wanted to know, without a new board, and with only a partial overhaul, if it could it be turned into a musical instrument. The short answer was "yes"...its actually quite nice now. Could it be made tunable?...yes, it now renders quite well. Could it have pitch clarity and sustain?...yes. Could the action be responsive and easy to play, with only partial messing with the geometry?...yes.
This sucker was actually not that far off. They actually got a lot of things right. They also got some fatal things wrong...but hey, it looked like a piano. So this technical is about what they got right, and what they blew...a very interesting project.
I look forward to seeing you at the meeting!
Doug Tybor
President, Boston Chapter PTG
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