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Thanks. So far it hasn't fared all that well since the initial tuning. There were a couple sour notes after just a couple weeks, which was disappointing. Definitely not the tuner's fault though. Now at 7 weeks post-tuning, it doesn't sound very good, but it is still an awful lot better than the video posted above.

I'm planning to have it tuned again May, hopefully timed nicely for ABFR #30, but we'll see.

It's one thing to tune it and have it sound good for a few days or a couple weeks. The real test will be to see how it does after its 3rd tuning. That's where I figure I'll have my answer re: if it's going to be serviceable over the long term or not.

If it sticks, I'll post an "after" video. I'm hoping Sam S will do that too.

I'm going to relate a story that is not mine, but was told with great hilarity by my Russian piano teacher. He speaks with a thick, rumbling Russian accent and we had all had a few glasses of wine which added to the laughter. Many years ago, after he had earned a bachelor's degree from a Novosibirsk conservatory, the refined and educated Alexei was obligated to serve in the Soviet army. He was stationed at a bleak and cold place on the Chinese border. Conditions were harsh and he missed his music and his former life.

His superior officer, an unpleasant and cruel man who knew nothing about music, had purchased a used upright piano for his granddaughter. When he bought it, he was told it was an excellent instrument and he paid a high price for it. The officer heard that Alexei was a musician and called him into his office. He growled that the "new" piano was broken and implied that it was Alexei's fault. He then ordered Alexei to fix the piano immediately. Alexei was terrified because he had no idea how to fix a piano but he had to obey a direct order.

Upon opening the fallboard of the dilapidated upright, Alexei observed that most of the ivories were missing from the keys. "Uh, oh. Thees eees not loooking so good." When he sat down to play, there was no sound whatsoever. Perplexed, he opened the piano to discover this "excellent instrument" did not have single string. Horrified, he wondered how he was going to obey a direct order from his martinet-like officer. There was no way he could contradict the officer by stating the piano was a piece of junk. (By now, we were all laughing our heads off). Upon closer inspection, he found that the base of the piano was filled with what appeared to be a large rat's nest. He then discovered that the nest contained little hairless baby rats and the parents had eaten most of the piano felt.

I wish you could have been there when he related this story because it was hilarious and yes, he did fix the piano, went on to earn a masters degree in conducting and immigrated to the U.S.

Not a piano, but a little pedal organ. It was in the little unused Victorian chapel on the campus of Winthrop University. It was derelict, and I was lucky to even get a wheeze or two out of it but I did manage to pick out a tune or two. That was when I was a seventeen year old kid who'd try anything.

I do hope it hangs in there aTallGuyNH! I think Sam did post an after somewhere a few months ago but where on the forum I cannot remember. Hope he jogs my memory!

Deb- Alexei sounds very skilled!!!

Aww I can just picture it going huff huff.

I just found it aTallGuy!

https://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1975399/Re:%20Help!%20I%27ve%20got%20piano%20acqui.html#Post1975399

He was a marvelous teacher and I learned a tremendous amount from him. He was also a great story teller. I stopped taking lessons from him a few years ago and moved on to a teacher with higher level piano skills, but I will always remember Alexei with deep respect and affection. Sadly, he took my leaving him personally and cut off contact.

Wow! What a dramatic difference.

I was hoping you guys wouldn't find it and I could post a better recording when I had the time. The playing in those recordings is awful. But you can still hear the dramatic difference the tuning made. It doesn't sound like the same instrument at all.

I aspire to be as awful as you some day....

Sam- awful??? I wish I was that GOOD! I could not even play a bar of this music. And you had got to that stage in a year. In a year I am still plonking below grade 1 pieces. I don't think you realise how talented you are!

Ask your tuner if it would help to use ethyl cyanoacrylate on the pins, perhaps just the loose ones.

Deborah, what a funny story. Sounds like he's lucky the officer didn't just have him lined up and shot.

Glueing the pins?? I've never heard of this... it strikes me as an approach that would invariably present problems down the road, but what do I know.

Regardless, they are not loose, it's just the nature of the beast when it is as out of tune as you can hear in the video above. In order to tune it, an enormous amount of pressure must be applied to the frame of the piano (a ton was the estimate I was given), and it's going to be pulling back to where it was before. Even if you weld the pins in place, it's not going to keep the piano in tune.

Glueing the pins?? I've never heard of this... [/quote]

Search for cyanoacrylate in the technicians forum. It's far better than previous pinblock chemical treatments. It gets years of extra life out of pianos that would otherwise be junked. There's a high probability that it would help those few strings that go south the fastest.

Maybe there should be a pianos on the PCT thread.

We just did a four day hike to finish Section E. After we finished, we went into Tehachapi for lunch. We were hungry!
We stopped at the Tehachapi Museum which has a very good exhibit of Indian basketry for a small unfunded museum.

They also have a restored house with an old Ludwig upright. Surprisingly, the docent said, "Sure, it works. Sit down a play if you want."

It needed a tuning, but actually, it wasn't far off. It was at least close to being in tune to itself. The action was not bad, it had nice dynamics and the ivory keys were in pretty good shape.

It was not a bad piano at all.