[CAUT] interesting alternative tuning experience

reggaepass at aol.com reggaepass at aol.com
Wed Dec 17 07:36:03 PST 2008


Hey Dan,


The piano has been in its current location for about a year now.  It doesn't appear that increased moisture content is to blame, though, as the entire piano did not go sharp, only the notes that had previously been tuned sharp (which are distributed throughout various octaves).

Alan

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Reed <pianoarts at tx.rr.com>
To: caut at ptg.org
Sent: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 6:58 pm
Subject: Re: [CAUT] interesting alternative tuning experience




Hey Alan,

ow long has the piano been at its current location? ( Thinking in
erms of the moisture content of the board) If the board was very dry,
or years, it may go sharp regardless of where you tune it.... as the
oard takes on H2o.

an
On Dec 16, 2008, at 6:26 PM, reggaepass at aol.com wrote:

excerpt>List,

 just had my second go-around at trying to get a piano that had been
uned in an unusual way for a long time back to "normal".  It was in a
uning that had some notes near normal tension, others up to a
uarter-tone flat, and still others as far sharp(!).  In addition, the
iano had been in that tuning for the past eight years (most of them
n Germany--it is a 1904 Schwechten grand with a bridge design I've
ot seen before).  

n my first visit to start the long journey home to equal temperament
t A=440, I started by doing a pass using the pitch-change function on
n Accutuner (which determines off-sets for each note independently of
hat came before, and I measured for every note).
  That got it close
nough to follow immediately with a straight machine tuning (with
ecalculated FAC), unisons-as-you-go from A0 to C8.  The piano had
een vastly transformed, although I cautioned that there were no
uarantees how long it would sound in tune. 

he owner reported that the piano started going out of tune within
eeks of the last servicing.  When I returned for a follow-up visit
hree and a half months later, I was unprepared for what I
ncountered.  Some notes, the ones that had been sharp, had crept back
p in pitch, many nearly 100% (!!) of the way back up to where they
ad been for those eight long years.

've done many alternate tunings, almost always lowering pitch and
ever raising individual notes more than 10 cents or so.  But after a
itch-raise and a tuning or two, things have always returned to normal
n a rather predictable way.  I have never tuned notes 50 cents sharp
or have I ever left an alternative tuning on a piano for more than a
ew weeks at a shot.  (Last week we tuned a concert grand to select
nstruments from one of our Balinese gamelans, but the piano spent
ess than a week from the first "Balinese" tuning to the retuning to
T @440.) 

as anyone else out there had any experience with notes and/or entire
ianos being tuned sharp for prolonged periods of time?  If so, did
ou observe the same kind of behavior upon retuning?  What would be
he most efficient way to get it back to "normal"?

hanks & Happy Holida
ys,

lan Eder

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