Thank you Ed. Great post! (as usual..) So can I ask you... do you feel "extra" (more than normal) friction upon tuning it the second time around on your "fine tuning"? I don't like that it feels like this at all. And you bring it to pitch in one pass.. hmmm...maybe I should investigate this instead of my usual routine of "ripping the band-aid off slowly" type of pitch raising. These strings break most of the time on the second pass, and while this doesn't happen ALL the time, I sure can fell something really different which I don't understand. Thank you very much!! :) Michelle On Jan 8, 2007, at 2:24 PM, A440A at aol.com wrote: > > << > 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. >> > > I can't explain why strings are breaking on newer pianos without > knowing > where they break, (and even then, it would be a guess). > However, if a piano is extremely flat, I bring it to pitch in > one pass, > then tune it to a usable condition, making sure the customer knows > the tuning > will not last. I love the SAT function for this, but if the piano > is over 50 > cents flat, I don't go more than 8 cents sharp for the correction. > I have never found incremental pitch raises to be a faster way > of having > a piano in tune, at pitch. I make sure the customer knows the > danger before > I start, and it is a good idea to listen for rattles or buzzes > before you > touch the insides, lest you be blamed for anything out of > perfection when you are > done with the rough work. It doesn't hurt to check the plate bolts > before you > start, and this is a real good time to take a careful, holistic, > look at the > piano. If there is a plate crack already there, you certainly > don't want to > inherit the liability. > Education of the customer is the root of return business and it > isn't > easy getting technical info across without wearing out at least one > or two > analogies. For pitch raises, I favor the golf green example, ie, > if you ignore a > green for several months, there is no way to mow it once or twice > and have it > ready for play. For the non-golfing clientele, I explain it as a > yard mowing > problem, or pruning a hedge, or maybe digging out an old dried up > baseball glove > that needs not only a lot of oil, but some use before it is ready > to really > play, again. > You can try to explain that wood takes some time to adjust to > the new > pressure, but whatever you do, warn about strings letting go and > that the first > couple of visits are not going to yield the stability that the > customer is > entitled to. Explain that long neglected pianos require some > "catch-up" tunings to > return to stability, and even if it is several tunings on two or > more trips, > the total cost will be far less than if the piano had been tuned > twice a year > all those neglected years. > > > > Ed Foote RPT > http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html > www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html >
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