page_title: Minipiano
section_title: Accessing the tuning pins
hierarchical_section_title: Minipiano / Mechanics / Accessing the tuning pins
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: De unieke pinnen op de voorkant van de mnipiano die kunnen gebruikt worden om de instrument te stemmen zonder heel het instrument open te maken
context_page_description: The minipiano is a type of piano patented by the Brasted brothers in 1934 under the name of their company Eavestaff Ltd. The primary factor that sets a minipiano apart from other types of piano is the fact that the sound producing mechanism is positioned below the keyboard, allowing an economical use of space.
context_section_description: What made most models of the 'Pianette' so innovative was the positioning of the tuning pins. On any other type of piano, tuning pins are pounded into holes which are sufficiently, deliberately and exactly smaller than the pins so that a long-lasting tightness will keep them from sliding, no matter what force is put upon them while stretching the wires into tune. These holes are positioned beneath a metal soundboard and have a specified depth. On many models of the 'Pianette' minipiano, however, these tuning pins have to be longer so that they can emerge at the front of the instrument just below the keyboard. By allowing a wooden flap to fall positioned neatly beneath the keyboard, tuning pins are revealed at the front. These pins can be adjusted with a standard star-shaped piano wrench. The monochords used on the lowest 31 strings are relatively easy to tune. The bichords are somewhat more difficult but if the pins are still tight enough, they can be adjusted with slight movements of the wrench until the desired tone is reached. Unfortunately, however, this system which involved the use of specially made tuning pins specific to the minipiano, has proven to be its greatest problem to people attempting to salvage the instruments today.  Although all pianos suffer to some degree from a natural loosening of these pins over time the minipiano is most highly criticized for the tendency of all the pins, especially those belonging to bichords, to loosen and slide much more quickly especially if they are not kept in a warm stable environment.  
  Although it is possible to access the tuning pins from the back as well, it is infinitely prefereable to be able to tune the minipiano from the front because in order to open the back one has to entirely detach the wooden lid, remove a whole set of metal rods, some screws above and across the wooden contraption holding the striking pad mechanism as well as two wooden rods attached to the pedals controlled by the player's feet.  This is done to allow the central striking mechanism to pivot outwards on an axis pivoting on two large screws at the bottom of the wooden contraption. But before the wooden structure can pivot on the screws attaching it firmly to the instrument, two curved metallic 'handles' that connect two wooden bars passing horizontally just behind the row of metal rods have to be detached as well by the removing the screws holding them to the higher of the two bars. After this, the whole structure should gracefully pivot outwards, allowing access to both the piano wires and the tuning pins.
caption: Viewed from beneath the front of the instrument, a wooden flap drops to reveal the tuning pins.
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