[CAUT] huge pitch raise question

[Wigent, Donald E]

Dear Michelle, Don Wigent hear.  I raise pitch on pianos on a daily
bases and almost never have a string breakage problem. I raise the piano
all the way the first pass, and a little more to compensate for drop. I
tune quickly but I would not say that I jerk the pins around.  I have
heard some tuners move the string up and down and up and down in a
radical fashion, but I don't think that that is what you do. I am not
sure that that would cause a problem of string breakage; it might make
the tuning les stable.  So I can't say what the problem is, however it
is not from raising the piano to pitch in 1 pass. Tell us more please.
Don			  
	
-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of
Michelle Stranges
Sent: Monday, January 08, 2007 2:07 PM
To: College and University Technicians
Subject: [CAUT] huge pitch raise question

Hi folks-

Happy New Year!

:D

It happens more often than I'd like (and once is enough to be honest)  
and while I "feel"  that it's not my lovely hammer technique ;)  ,  
maybe it's something to do with some sort of "string thing"..

Has anyone else run across this?
(Or maybe a PTG article I have overlooked?)

Upon visiting a fairly new piano and finding it dreadfully flat (50  
cents or more) , I carefully yet quickly, raise it up at least half  
of what it was.
And I do have a (good?) habit of initially moving the pin in the flat  
direction before moving it sharp in order to loosen any friction from  
any rust or whatever that may have accumulated. Just a *quick* jerk  
to the left- nothing serious at all.

Now.. having raised the piano up (with a second pass to at least get  
it up to pitch) I start doing a "fine tuning".

it is either at this second pass or my fine tuning where strings  
start to break.
In the usual places too- nothing out of the ordinary.

(Am I doing "too many tunings" (up to 3  times) to raise this  
completely up? Seems like that wouldn't be an issue,  especially if  
it's new(er)?
Have I introduced some sort of unusual friction/heat or something??


Now this doesn't happen all of the time, but I am acutely aware that  
it could and I wonder if there's something in my technique or my  
sequence of pitch raising that makes these newer strings break. (I  
could understand some strings breaking if the piano was older..)

I know tuners who on the first go, bring the whole piano up tp pitch  
but I've always been a little leary of that.
I'm wondering if they also have strings break on their second pass/ 
fine tuning..

I fully realize that they (the strings) are now at different spots on  
all of the contact and termination points so I would assume that  
would add to the puzzle.
And I'd like to also add that it seems that the tork alone on this  
1/2 way-to-pitch, pitch raised piano feels MUCH higher than it did  
before (and more than "normal") and I chalk that up to the higher  
tension I have just introduced.

I am a jerk tuner.

(Stop laughing  :)

I would be VERY interested in viewing the number of passes you folks  
do to bring a  piano up to pitch and whether or not you've  
experienced this-especially on ones that aren't so old.

Hope this post reads OK- and I look forward to your responses!

:)
Michelle