Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum GH1 - pitch lock?

I finally have come face-to-face with what has been written about for years..

An "icky" Yamaha GH1, with the untunable group of plain wire notes in the lower tenor section. I know I've tuned a couple of GH1's in the past, but none were this terrible at the break. B is the lowest plain wire, and from there up to about Eb, they couldn't ever sound decent with the octave above.

I realize that there are better, more permanent, costly options, but I wanted to give this a try for a church where I rehearse with a men's chorus...

I pulled out my little canister of pitch lock clips and went to work on the bridge side of the strings - closer to the bridge has a minimal effect, while further into the speaking length has a more dramatic effect. The unison can be "tuned" by moving the clips - the further from the bridge, the flatter the
pitch.

It is really, "less bad" than before. The downside is that the only way to tune those strings now is with all three sounding - a nightmare! That, or maybe sliding the pitch locks up and down. I'll be experimenting as the weather changes...



Ron Koval

Ron, how are these installed on less than perfectly spaced strings...is there a tool that crimps them on? Was it difficult with the over stringing over top of them? I see in the photo some of them appear a little crooked, will these not straighten out with time. get a bit loose and then buzz?

There are little pliers that help with adjusting the width - I haven't had much trouble with them loosening up, though I use them more for noises in the capo section and mis-matched bass strings.

There was enough space between the bass strings to reach through with the clip in a pair of pliers and my fingers pushing the plain wires together a little to make installation easier. Sometimes it takes a few adjustments to get it tight enough, but not too tight to move the strings much closer together. Working on the bridge side causes fewer problems with the dampers!

Ron Koval

What are pitch lock clips??? I've never heard of them.

http://pitchlock.com/pitch-lock-string-couplers/

What I did above is a non-standard, experimental application!

Ron Koval

I've been using pitchlock for quite a while now. I think they're great! They were originally designed for exactly the way you're using them Ron but he discovered that piano tuners didn't like their tunings being messed with so he began promoting them to take care of the v-bar duplex buzzing that sometimes happens on grands. I use them quite a lot for that.

I've got a couple of pianos out there that have the traditional pitch lock application of two strings of the unison clipped. It DOES take a different approach to tuning! I usually just work with the two clipped strings 'open' to get to pitch and then bring in the third string to complete the unison...

Ron Koval

Good luck with this piano Ron. I've had a few GH1s who's lower tenor sections didn't stay in tune for a month. I doubt the clips are going to be much help.

A DampeChaser System might help.