advice??

[Les Smith]

On Fri, 19 Dec 1997, Edward Carwithen wrote:

>   I tuned a Hallet Davis & Co. piano today.  Atlas indicates it was built
> in 1885.  Not a bad piano, but...  It was 47 cents sharp on A4.  A5 was
> worse.  The client says that the previous tuner indicated that pianos of
> this time had a special tuning range.  He was the 2nd tuner they had had
> which had changed the frequency of the piano.  
>   Here I come, and I lowered it back down to A - 440.  I have to add that
> there were a lot of replaced strings.  Several had been tied off (very
> neatly too), and several completely replaced.  The sound board was also
> split and repaired.  this piano has been moved since previous tuning and
> spent several months in storage 
>   Anyone have any information about a "special" pitch for "pianos of this
> time."  Other than maybe tuning at 435, which is lower, I can't think of a
> reason for tuning it sharp at all, much less almost 50 cents sharp.   I
> can't imagine that moving it, or storing it would cause it to go sharp, at
> least not to that extent.
> 
>   Any thoughts???????

Yes--lower the pitch on that piano back down to A-435 as soon as you
have the opportunity. If it's 50 cents sharp of A-440 NOW, with the
heat already on in many places, and the humidity down, imaagine how sharp
it might have been last spring or summer when the humidity was high. Al-
though some piano manufacturers may have been tuning to A-440 by the
early twenties, or even sooner, A-440 wasn't INFORMALLY adopted as stand-
ard pitch by the manufacturers until 1925. It wasn't formally adopted by
the forerunner of the US Bureau of standards until 1936 and it didn't
become international in scope until 1939. The cause of the broken strings
and the disintegrating soundboard is most likely trying to tune the in-
strument to a higher pitch than it was originally intended for even when
new. To continue to do so to an instrument that is well over a hundred
years old is to just ASK for more trouble. Like maybe having the plate
break on you. The problem most likely arose when the owner had it tuned
during a period of low humidity. That tuner MAY have tuned it to A-435,
or even, unknowingly to A-440. It most likely was later tuned during a
period of high humidity which had pushed the pitch up to A-440, or higher.
THAT tuner, being too lazy to take it back down to A-435, merely tuned it
to where he found it--A-440, or higher. After a succession of tunings at
higher than proper pitch, you now find it 50 cents higher than A-440.  
I would suggest that you bring it back down to proper pitch (A-435),
realizing that it will rise again in the future. Inform the owner of
what proper pitch is for his piano and write it on the plate somewhere
inside so that the next tuner who comes along who doesn't know what
he's doing will have a reference guide which he will probably ignore
anyway. That way the owner won't be able to blame YOU if some night
he's awakened by an explosion as the plate and/or soundboard let go
due to excessive tension. I've never HEARD it happen, but I've SEEN
what happens when called in the next morning to perform the autopsy
and give the last rites. It ain't pretty.

Les Smith
lessmith@buffnet.net