Thanks Les for the information. I lowered it yesterday, but only to A 440. I will check in a week or so, and maybe lower it at that time to 435. At 11:02 PM 12/19/97 -0500, you wrote: > > >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 > > Ed Carwithen Oregon
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