I tune the K-8 myself for the first time

I love playing on a piano that is in tune. The first thing I do right after the tuner has left is to sit down at the piano and play. After that it’s just a slow downhill slide in satisfaction until the next tuning.

It is said that a new piano’s tuning will drift more in the first year as the strings stretch and the soundboard acclimatizes to the relative humidity in its new environment, and therefore the tuner should be called in at least three times during that period. After the first year a couple of tunings each year will usually suffice, unless the piano experiences large seasonal swings in relative humidity.

But I had two new pianos in the space of nine months: The first K-8 with the mysterious double-strike affliction I wrote about earlier, and the K-8 that Robert Piano gave me in exchange for the sick one. So I started to toy with the idea of getting an electronic tuning device and a tuning kit to tune the K-8 whenever I though that it had drifted too far out of tune for comfort.

In the meantime I was learning more about historical temperaments, and about how the Equal temperament might not (some say should not) be the temperament of choice for just about all music from Bach to Beethoven and maybe also beyond. And of course ET is what just about all tuners in Singapore attempt to give their customers. Some tuners do better than others, but most of the time the end result is not ET.

I finally caved in three months after the second K-8 arrived, and went online to buy a tuning kit. I also sprang for Verituner Pocket for my PDA phone. The tuning kit arrived in early April.

The first temperament I tuned the piano to was Equal Temperament, primarily for use as a baseline for comparison with other temperaments. It took me six back-breaking hours to complete my first ever tuning because I had to:

• Learn how to position the mutes;
• Learn how to manipulate the tuning hammer; and
• Learn how to operate Verituner Pocket.

Along the way I also discovered that despite Kawai’s reputation for good quality control in the factory, my K-8 (and probably every piano that comes out of the factory) needs a good final prep by the dealer before delivery. Sadly that’s something that most dealers don’t do because it eats into their margins. I’m not saying that the K-8 was in bad shape, but that it could be in even better shape.

When I finally finished the tuning I was surprised at what I heard when I played the K-8. The piano sounded really clean. The tuning was clearly better than what I’d been given by the tuners who had worked on both K-8’s. (I’ve read that when an aural tuner attempts the ET, there is a 90% chance that what he gives you isn’t really equal at all.) What was particularly interesting was that the piano now sounded too clean and somewhat sterile. Something was missing.

By then it was pushing 03h00 in the morning, and my whole back had seized up. Anything else would have to wait till later.

The Klavier-Roller piano transporter is sheer genius!

The piano mover’s lot in Singapore is a tough one:

• About 87% of the population live in high-rise housing.
• Some of the blocks have surprisingly poor access from the road or from the nearest carpark.
• Some of the blocks have lifts into which you can’t fit an upright piano standing on its end.
• Many blocks have lifts that do not stop on every floor (although that’s slowly changing with the HDB’s progressive Lift Upgrading Programme).

So every piano mover employs a gang of strong lads to do the heavy lifting, in particular the hefting of pianos up and down multiple flights of stairs. They charge around S$150 dollars (sometimes more) per floor. The craziest move I know of is the hauling of PW member Wzkit’s Sauter Delta 185 up 24 floors to his flat. Read all about it here and here.

The use of manual labour to haul pianos incurs two risks: Injury to the guys doing the heavy lifting, and damage to the piano if it is accidentally dropped. These are rare occurrences, but the probability of either or both happening is most definitely non-zero.

But what if the piano mover had that sensationally brilliant invention called a Klavier-Roller?

They don’t come cheap of course. The estimated minimum investment is some number upwards of EUR20,000, depending on the size of Klavier-Roller and the accessories you get to go with it. However, a clever piano mover could still charge the same rates as before, and then use the “safer for the piano” marketing line to reel in the customers. He could do more jobs per day, and reduce his labour costs significantly. A quick back-of-the-envelope estimate suggests that the cost of a single Klavier-Roller can be recouped in about six months.

What to put under the Omega’s casters?

I was told that if a grand piano is to be located on a concrete or tile-on-concrete floor that something should be put under the casters so that strong vibrations that are conducted down through the legs are not reflected back up from the floor.

Is there any truth in this? Who might know? I’ve posted on PW but have not gotten any definitive answer so far.

I was thinking that the only way that these reflected waves can cause damage in the long-term is if they resonate sufficiently strongly at specific frequencies within the piano to cause micro-damage at glue joints and cause de-lamination over the long term.

The Omega has big, locking double-casters (picture below) and I’ve never come across caster cups that would be large enough to go under them. In any case I don’t want to use caster cups because I may have to move the piano very occasionally (e.g., when I tweak the piano’s position). It also means that I can’t (and don’t want to) put the piano on a large rug because it makes it difficult to roll the piano and then reposition the rug under the casters after that.

I used Magiglide sliders under the casters of the K-8, and they worked very well. I moved that piano around a lot in my effort to find the best location for it in my living room. I could use the larger Magiglides (in pairs) under the casters of the Omega, but I’d like to avoid them if possible because they just aren’t all that visually appealing.

Gary McBride and his Sauter Omega 220

While gathering together the materials for this blog I rediscovered Gary McBride’s web site. Gary was a full-time musician but chucked it in for a job with IBM. He has a Sauter Omega 220 at home. There are recordings on his webbie of the house concerts that he gave over the past two Christmas Eves.

PW thread on why there aren’t any ‘great’ composers today

Here. The ensuing discussion was very interesting. It more or less concluded that there are indeed great composers today. They include people who write pop music and composers who write the ‘serious’ stuff. The former are far more visible because of the monetary ‘top of the pops’ angle, while the latter are not generally visible. Some composers were mentioned. I’ll check them out when I can.