Tuning in the 19th Century?

Yes, by the 1860's, tuning was a legitimate occupation, maybe even before that.  By early 1890, we find local tuners' organizations already in existence.  The bigger cities, such as New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Boston, to name a few, had local groups for years.  But the BIG step was to organize these smaller groups into a national organization.  This was first attempted in New York in 1892, just before the 1893 Chicago World's Fair Exposition opened.  The impetus was strong at first, but it was ultimately short lived due to abuse of power by a few, and others not joining either from skepticism or misunderstanding the purposes of the organization.  The tuners even back then were rather independent-minded.

Other attempts to organize were made , but it wasn't until 1910 that the idea finally took hold, and the American Guild of Piano Tuners was born. It all started with a group of seven experienced and forward-looking tuners around the New York area, and after their first year in existence, they had 50 members.  By two years their numbers were close to 300!  One of the reasons this latest attempt took root and thrived, was the determination and ideals that this group of seven had for the organization.  They are enumerated here, in "The Tuners' Platform" -

• To establish and maintain the highest technical and moral standards in the profession of piano tuning.
• To educate the piano owning public on the nature and care of the piano.
• To get the piano manufacturers to adopt a uniform warranty.
• To establish once and for all a standard pitch.
• To abolish the "free tuning", as it gives the wrong impression to the customer of that service, and abuses the tuning department.  (Back then, piano stores had tuning departments)

That, along with their willingness to act as emissaries for the organization, traveling to many parts of the country in order to talk to independent tuners about the advantages getting organized, helped the organization to grow.  That idea was carried on into the 1920's.  Of course, not everyone they talked to joined.  In fact I would have to say that the vast majority did not join right away, and most never did.

But this was just the beginning...

 

The Japanese Piano Invasion

When we think of the Japanese piano "invading" the US, we think of the early 1960's, when they began importing some pretty nice pianos here.  But wait, there was an earlier time when the Japanese began importing pianos.  Not many of us are aware of that, but it was in the 1930's when they imported around 200 pianos to the United States.  

It was a short lived "invasion".  Why?  Because the pianos they were importing were not much different than toy pianos.  One string per note, shortened keyboards, and small plain cabinetry was the whole of the Japanese import piano offering.  I quote the Nov.-Dec. 1933 "Presto-Times" music trade magazine, which had an interesting article on the subject:

"...To make a small toylike piano is commendable enough so far as we can see, but

there are toy shops that could do this work. These miniature instruments probably

do have some tendency toward creating an incentive in children for the study

of music which in due time might call for a standard piano. But as for trying to

make a cheaper piano; a piano to sell at a ridiculously low price just because some

poorly paid artisans of other countries like Japan are doing it is, to all appearances

a tendency to encourage cheapness to the impairment of quality. Let them over in

Japan or anywhere else give their time to cheap, unmusical and unpiano production

but as for our own country and our own product we should keep to the legitimate.

However, it can be said that if something of the Japanese piano order must

be turned out in this country to meet the requirements of the Japanese importations,

there are factories here with capabilities for mass production able to master

the situation and thus minimize importations of even toy pianos."

Thus, the Japanese piano invasion fizzled out rather quickly.  I think they learned something from that.

http://presto.arcade-museum.com/PRESTO-1933-2271/

Dolgeville Felt Factory

Why did my wife and I want to take a side trip to visit Dolgeville?  Actually it was more me than my wife, although she was a good sport about it.  I wanted to see for myself what this historic place was like.  Its long ago abandoned felt factory made the felt used in high quality hammers such as was used to make Steinway hammers, but is now a long lost art. No one seems to know what it was about the felt that made the piano hammers sound so good.  Today they are saying "Wieckert" felt is made similarly, and is the closest thing to what was.  Maybe so.     

In April of 1874, when Alfred Dolge first arrived at that little Adirondack village in upstate NY, it was known as Brockett’s Bridge.  By December 1881, the townspeople successfully petitioned for the name to be changed to Dolgeville, in honor of him, building not only thriving businesses, including the felt making firm, but also a thriving community with forward-looking ideas.  The realization of these ideas were not without its bumps in the road however, and by 1899, his businesses were bankrupt, his dreams dashed.  The story is laid out in the book by Eleanor Franz entitled “Dolge”.



How to change pitch of pianos

That was the title of a booklet by George L. Maitland, who published it in 1915.  He was also a regular contributor to "The Tuner's Magazine", published by Sumner Bales from 1913 to 1916.  That magazine was published for the American Guild of Piano Tuners, of which Mr. Bales held membership.

Here is what Mr. Maitland said in his little booklet: First the tuner needs to know that the piano is in good enough condition to withstand the increase of tension.  He goes through the various details in determining this.  For instance, all plate screws and bolts need to be tightened, plate, bridges and soundboard inspected, pinblock checked out, and strings evaluated.  A good light is essential to make these determinations. 

He then goes into detail about correcting faults you may have found.  I will just touch on them here.

Iron Plate:
Finding a crack or break, do not attempt to raise pitch.

Pin Block:
If a 3/4 plate, the pinblock must have screws or bolts running through to the stanchions in the back.  If no bolts are present, then install them.  Check for loose tuning pins, and repair ones that are.  If the pin block is split, do not attempt to raise.  If a full plate, just make sure all bolts are tight.

Bridges:
If split across the pin holes, repair first, or do not attempt to raise pitch.  Take notice that the upper bass bridge (if wood) is screwed down, also that the bridges are screwed tightly to the sound board.  If bridges are loose from the sound board, repair first.

Sound Board:
As long as the ribs are tight to the sound board, cracks are not a concern when raising pitch.  But if they are loose, they must be repaired first, to avoid a rattle.  He does not recommend shimming whatsoever.  I quote one sentence from this section: "Anyhow, a cracked sound board is only nature's way of correcting the oversight of the piano maker who persists in making and putting in sound boards with no allowance for expansion and contraction caused by swelling and drying out of moisture."

Now he gets to the pitch raise itself.  He advises getting the pitch up "against the bracing of the plate" as quickly as possible.

His method for a greater than 1/8th of a tone pitch raise:
1/8th of a tone in his parlance is about 10 to 15 cents in ours.  First determine how much flatter or sharper one section is as compared to another by comparing octaves.  That is, how does the bass section compare in pitch to the lower treble, mid range, and upper treble sections?  He does not care to be precise in this, only to have a general idea as expressed in fractions of a tone, thus he says 1/8th of a tone, or 1/4 of a tone, or 1/2 of a tone, etc.

He begins with the lowest note on the piano, usually A0.  To give you an idea of what his method is, he gives an example that the bass section is 1/2 tone flat (1/2 step - me):

Bring the lowest A "up one-half tone to Bb, making the A about 3 beats sharp of its perfect unison, Bb.  Then tune Bb up to B natural, remembering to have it 2 or 3 waves sharp the same as you tuned the A," following this pattern until one octave has been tuned.  Further quoting, "Now compare your upper A with the lowest A, the octave below.  If your upper A is a few beats sharp, you are not far out of the way.  Now, having your lowest 12 notes of the piano up to the proper pitch, use these 12 notes as your foundation, and tune up the chromatic scale in octaves clear up to the top...remembering to keep your upper notes tuned 2 or 3 waves on the sharp side." 

"Accurate work by the above process is obtained by careful comparison rather than by fixed rule."

He then goes on to explain how the experienced tuner fudges this way and that, according to the piano and how sharp or flat each section is to each other, and how the piano is reacting as the work progresses.

How to mute and listen when raising pitch:
"It is perhaps best for even the experienced tuner to mute the strings in the usual way (using two rubber or felt mutes - me) until he is perfectly familiar with the process."

He then describes his way of muting by the use of his fore finger of the right hand ( or the hand which he uses to manipulate the tuning lever - me ).  This adds speed to the process.  When you get to the double strings and play the octave, tune one of the strings until you think it's right (as both are sounding), then check again by playing the octave, but this time muting one string with your finger, changing the pitch if necessary.   Continue on in this way, and when you get to the three string unisons, mute two strings with you finger and thumb.  However, "By practice a tuner can learn to easily tune one of the three strings to the octave even while the other two are sounding," using the finger to mute to test as needed.

OK, if the pitch raise is not a 1/2 step, but is more than 1/8th, how do you determine how much to over pull?  This is what he says: "Well, suppose it is 1/4 of a tone.  Use the lowest 12 notes on your piano, and if the bass is to come up 1/4 of a tone, just proportion it and pull just 1/2 as much as you did for the 1/2 tone, or, if slightly less than 1/4, yet more than 1/8th, proportion it the same way.  Make your pull up just a little less than 1/4, using that nice judgement that every experienced tuner should have. (emphasis mine)  Aren't we glad for the electronic tuning devices available to us?  But this is how they used to have to do this.  And if you're ever caught without a machine, this might be good to know.

Further advice:

• "Strike each key hard 2 or 3 times after raising (or lowering) pitch", and before the fine tuning.
• "Do not pull more than 1/2 tone at once."
• "We find that we can raise a piano 1/2 tone usually without hurrying and fine tune in 2 hours."
• "When you raise pitch starting at A0, you are putting the pressure right against the bracing at once, where it belongs.  Hence, when your piano is up by this method, it stays

Tender strings:

If you think string breakage will be a problem, "turn your tuning pin back just enough to take the sharp bend out of the wire at the pin.  Then give a quick turn upward to raise the pitch of the string..." .  If strings continue to break after trying that process, "...turn back your tuning pin very slightly as before, then take a reed hook (or maybe a string hook - me), or other instrument, with which you can get a good hold of the string close to the tuning pin, catch the string close to the tuning pin with your reed hook, pull the string hard away from the tuning pin with the reed hook at the same time that you turn the tuning pin with your tuning hammer.  Of course,  you cannot sound your note while performing this operation...But if you should get the string a little too high by this method, it will not break when getting to proper pitch."  If these methods fail, restringing "or let them severely alone" are your only other options.

Parting words from George Maitland:
"Finally, we can only say that we have used this method, which we have tried to make plain, for many years, and have always found it perfectly satisfactory."