SHARP pianos

[Clyde Hollinger]

Friends,

In general I've not been in favor of "floating the pitch" for pianos,
but a recent event has helped me see the light.  During the last week
I've been finding that a number of the pianos I tuned a year ago are
considerably flat.  My records indicate that a year ago I arrived to
find the same pianos very sharp.  Here's a worst case type of scenario
-- 12/17/97, first call, tune to A440; 6/26/98, piano was 37c sharp;
6/3/99, piano was 14c flat.  And these are at times when the humidity is
generally pretty moderate here in PA.

Now I'm not good at remembering weather patterns, but one of my clients
helped me when I suggested maybe we had a long rainy spell about this
time last year.  "Oh, yes," she responded, "I keep a garden book, and
last year this time we had a week of rainy weather."

So now I am inclined, if I find a piano that has been regularly serviced
wildly off pitch (assuming good structural integrity), not to take pains
to do the pitch corrections, up then down, back and forth, etc. 
Obviously, tuning for a concert is a different story.

By the way, am I correct that in general smaller pianos will change more
drastically with humidity fluctuations than larger ones?

Regards,
Clyde Hollinger