Self Tuning Piano

I'm new here. Has there been any discussion on the QRS self tuning piano system? What I'm wondering is - how can the strings be tightened? I understand how electricity can loosen strings, but not tighten.

Can someone send me the discussion if they have it saved?

'Scott D. Portzline' I

Bingo!!

I went to Google.com and typed in: self tuning piano. This is the result:

Hi Scott:

You probably read my article in the July issue of the Piano Technicians Journal that I recently wrote. There were some discussions in this group about this system a few months ago.

The strings are pre-warmed to a median temperature, then aurally tuned by a master technician at Story & Clark. The frequency values of each string are then read and stored in memory forever. Since the strings begin at an elevated temperature, you can either warm or cool them as required.

We are currently trying to strike a balance of power consumption with tuning longevity. Strings stretch over time (years) and go flat. What temperature is chosen for this initial tuning is critical. If we start with a warmer temperature, we can compensate for the stretch for a longer time and since the stretch is basically asymtotic (levels out after a few years) we could conceiveably extend the tuning indefinitely. But the higher the temperature we maintain, the larger the power supply (more expensive system) and the more power it requires (higher light bill at the end of the month). We would like to get by with a few hundred watts. If we find that the power is becoming excessive, the piano might have to be manually 'sharpened' by a tech every few years in its youngest days.

The main idea of the system is not to eliminate manual tuning, per se, but to eliminate 'tuning decay' as I call it. When I get my piano tuned now, it is noticably out of tune in a couple of weeks. This device just lets the pianist have an in-tune instrument, on demand, just like virtually every other instrument in the world.

Don A. Gilmore

Even better would be a self tuning pipe organ. I have a Yamaha C3 and it is very stable and only needs tuning twice a year. It is relatviely inexpensive to tune and does not take a great deal of time to tune it.

Pipe organs, on the other hand, are a nightmare. They can easily need tuning once a month and even more. Moreover, it takes two individuals to tune it and many hours to do it properly. To make matters worse, there are very few people around any more that know how to tune a pipe organ properly whereas there are many individuals that know how to tune a piano.

How about a self tuning pipe organ? That is what the world really needs.

I thought of a system for self-tuning bagpipes, but nobody cared. <G> I can't tune a piano, but I can tuna fish. I've never seen the catskill mountains, but I've seen 'em kill mice. I've never seen a catfish, but I've seen 'em watching the fish in the pond... <G>

(ducking hurled produce),

I didn't read your article, but I have read and participated in some of the discussions in this newsgroup. Maybe this was asked already, but here goes anyway.

Does the piano have bridge pins and agraffes. If so, I'm wondering if there ever is a problem with strings sticking at these points so that the heating/cooling of the string can't zero in on the correct frequency?

No, there is no problem with 'sticking'. In fact the normal heavy pounding required in manual tuning to remove residual stresses is not necessary.

The reason is that the entire string is warmed uniformly. For a given change in temperature a section of string expands (or contracts) propotionate to its total length. The small segment (between agraffe and string rest, or string rest to pin, etc.) elongates by a smaller amount than the long segment (agraffe to bridge). But the change in tension, or more accurately, strain, due to this expansion depends on the length as well. In other words, it's easier to stretch a long wire than a short one. Both of these phenomena are linear, so they cancel each other out and the tension of any segment of the string is the same, no matter what length.

I got lucky.

AFAIK barring exceptional circumstances open flue pipes that are cone tuned at installation should rarely go out of tune with each other. The introduction of sliders on flue pipes was the beginning of the nightmare. As the temperature fluctuates the reed pipes will change pitch relative to the flues, which is why the building should be at the normal 'occupied' temperature when the organ is tuned. As long as there are not too many reed stops the organist and a mate should be able to fix them every so often.

My worst organ experience was playing a recital on an organ with three stops of real pipes and about 30 electronic stops. There was a knob to tune the electronic stuff to the pipes but it was a true nightmare.