Stretching

[EHILBERT@midd.middlebury.edu]

Dear Avery,
      A lot of good information there from Randy Potter!  But another
thing to consider is overstretching.  We have a couple of tuners in this neck
the woods who like to really stretch the top end.  You see, once you get a
pitch high enough in the top half octave or so, most anything sounds like
maybe it is right.  Try tuning, say A7 up to A#7 pitch and then try running
an Amajor arpeggio from the middle of the piano up to and including that extra
high A7.  Don't be surprised if a lot of people think it sounds just fine!!
I've seen pianos where the last three or four notes easily climbed that much and the top end
sounded dead because of too much downbearing being loaded onto
the soundboard up there.  Try lowering the pitch on one of those notes and
keep on going down until suddenly you actually hear it going flat.  You may
again be surprised at how far you lower that pitch until it suddenly sounds
flat!    At any rate, keep on lowering those notes up there and listen to the
 change in tone.  You may have to lower then several times since lowering the
tension on one note will dramatically raise the pitch again on adjacent notes.
However, once you get them down to where they belong, and the whole section
is down where it belongs, the tone will come up considerably as the board
can now vibrate freely again.
      I agree with Randy that using the term "stretching" may be counter-
productive unless the custome understands the difference between the
theoretcial doubbling of frequency in octaves, and the reality of the
freuency going up sharper than that due to inharmonicity.  Educating the
customer here, can help them to understand what you are listening for when
tuning.  It can also be instructive to both you and them, for you to have
them listen wjhile you are tuning and then have them tell you where to leave
the pitch.  We don't all hear the same and it may help you to please them if
you are able to place the pitches where they sound right to the customer.

Often the customer will find that they cannot place the pitch where it sounds
right to them and then they will let you put it where you will - right or
wrong!  This is especially true in the tuning of the low bass in spinets.
Ed Hilbert.
Vt Chapter