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Adventures in the Field, entry 2
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Some days are spent working on humble spinets and old consoles. Competent instruments in their own right (... mostly), but there's a reason you don't see many concerts where the pianist is seated at a spinet. Then there are days when I get to work on a fine concert instrument. These are the kinds of instruments where a good tuning brings the piano and the music played on it to life. Where one is tempted to play a little longer after the tunings are done - you know, to thoroughly enjoy the piano evaluate the tuning.
Friday was one of those days. And I was lucky enough to tune not just one, but two fine concert instruments. My first was a Shigeru Kawai SK7:
As a pianist I've had a soft spot for Shigeru Kawai's ever since playing an immaculately prepped and seemingly telepathic SK6 in a showroom 5 years ago. This was my first opportunity to tune one, and it was a pleasure.
The second instrument was a Yamaha CFIII concert grand:
This happened to be my first opportunity to tune a concert grand, and it was a rewarding and eye-opening experience (even though I did have to do a pitch raise first)! The clarity in the low bass was a revelation, coming from my experience solely on pianos under 7 feet in length. In many shorter pianos, even as a technician it's hard to hear the actual pitch of the lowest 3 bass notes with any real clarity. There are tests and checks we can use to verify the pitch, but it's still not a very clear tone when played on their own. In this Yamaha it was wonderfully clear.
The bonus with both of these pianos is that once I was finished, I got to evaluate the tuning by playing a few quick pieces - on a well prepped, well tuned (if I may be so bold) concert instrument, on stage in a recital hall.
It's a rough life.
Categories: Field work