"elasticity" back

[pianoman]

Hello John,
You know, sometimes its just good to be pleasantly surprised without
knowing what you did right.
James Grebe
R.P.T. of the P.T.G. from St. Louis, MO. USA, Earth
pianoman@inlink.com
"I'm on my way towards the mighty light of knowledge".

----------
> From: John R Fortiner <pianoserv440@juno.com>
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: "elasticity"
> Date: Sunday, March 01, 1998 4:13 PM
> 
> Dear List:
> 	Last week I was called upon to tune a P S Wicks upright that
> measured about 155c low.  ( That 155 is not a typographical error).   I
> told the piano's owner that the safest process would be to bring it up
> about 50c at a time ( pitch raising, not taking the time to "tune" at
> each level) so that if more than a few  wires did break that we would not
> be in a situation where the piano could not be put in tune with itself
> fairly easily.  I explained to her that I simply did not want her to end
> up with a piano that couldn't be played without a restringing job -
> therefore take it a little at a time in order to be able to determine at
> what pitch level the piano could be tuned. BTW she estimates that the
> piano had not been tuned for 35-40 years.
> Anyway -----------------  On the first raise to about -100c the wires
> felt fairly elastic - not really brittle - but not as elastic as I would
> have liked to have felt.  On the second raise to about -50c the wire felt
> more elastic by quite a bit.  As if that was not enough on the third
> raise to about A440 the wire felt even more elastic - almost like new
> wire.  I tuned the piano to A440 with no wires breaking - much to my
> customer's joy -( and mine also for that matter.)
> Why, I ask you, would the wire have felt more elastic as the piano
> approached standard pitch?  I can't figure this out as most of the
> piano's that I have had to do major raises on have felt a little less
> elastic as they approached standard pitch.  Your explanations(s) will be
> welcomed by this inquisitive tech.
> 
>                                                                          
>   Thanks in advance:
>                                                                          
>    John R. Fortiner
>                                                                          
>    e-mail: jfortiner@juno.com
> 
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