More Tuning Hints

Tuning Up, Tuning Down

Tuning Up ­ There is a technique that piano tuners use to make their instruments stay in tune longer. It is referred to as "tuning to the flat". This does not mean that the instrument is tuned flat. Tuning to the flat brings an instrument up to pitch and then disengages the strain generated between the pin and the wood.

You know that moment when you have just brought a string up to pitch? The tuning key is still on the pin and in your hand and from the wood in the harmonic arch, through the pin, through the key and into your hand you can feel that there are forces trying to pull the pin back the direction it just came. As the pin has been turned, the spongy cells of the wood have become twisted. This twisting sensation is the wood fiber expressing a mechanical memory, in other words, the fibers want to spring back to the way they were a minute ago. The pins of your harp are held by either wedge friction or by microthreads, neither of which need the wood fibre to be twisted to capture. The twisting you feel is an added stress to the wood in the arch, a place where your harp already has enough string pressure. To relieve this torsion stress, with the tuning key still in your hand and without detuning the string at all, generate enough force to create some backpressure. You will be able to feel the release of the twisting immediately. Do not tune higher and then back down to the desired note. This will release pressure on the string between the pin and the bridge causing slack. When you pluck on the string it will pull this slack over the bridge causing tension on the string to drop and the pitch to lower. You should always tune up to a pitch, not down. If a string is already above the desired pitch, lower it significantly and then bring it back to the desired frequency.

Tuning Down ­ We travel all over the country with our harps. The only time we detune is when we are going from a humid area into a dry one. Dry air causes a soundboard to give up water and pull away from the arch, raising the pitch of the strings and increasing string tension on the whole system. Detuning a half step and then bringing the harp back up to tune after a grace period in the new climate causes the least stress to the thin soundboard woods.

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