Monday, April 28, 2008

Tuna

Translation work took a chunk out of the day. After some firewood gathering to fend off the evening chill I had a go at tuning the piano. It had got so bad that we were having to avoid certain notes. For the most part it was an even semitone flat. Sammy had an electronic meter to indicate the tone and while perusing the shelves at the tool store yesterday I noticed that the square hole in 1/4 inch socket wrench parts was very similar in size to the square tuning pegs. I stuck a 6mm socket onto a 6mm Allen wrench that fits into my little ratchet driver so that the square hole in the spanner socket would face out and set to with tuning a couple of octaves. You have to pluck each string individually with your thumb nail or some such to make sure they are each on the right note. I suppose real tuners do some special stuff, but I have just done all the 2 or 3 string sets to the correct note by the meter. It is a lot more fun to play now. I must get on and do the remaining notes soon so that I can put the cover back on.