tuning forks & pitch raises

[Brian Henselman]

><< With all the talk recently about those who are using the metal forks,
how
> does one do pitch raises aurally--i.e, how does one determine how flat a
> piano is and how sharp to tune it so that the pitch will fall, leaving the
> piano fairly close to pitch for fine tuning?
>
> With the Accu-fork, it is simple since it has a slider adjustment allowing
> one to easily determine the pitch of a piano before a pitch raise.  How is
> it done with a metal fork?
>
> Just curious.
>
> John Formsma
> Blue Mountain, MS >>

I feel pretty confident counting beats up to about 16 beats/second.  12 per
second at middle-C (which is pretty easy to count) is approximately 48 cents
(or more).  So I'd "rough" pitch it with up to 6 cycles over (note this is
up to a 1/2-over offset), and set up a quick (distortedly stretched)
temperament and octaves in the tenor section, pull up those unisons, and
remute (total time 15 minutes max. on a bad day).  Now go back and
re-calibrate.  If you're with 4 cents, (I'm usually within 1 or 2) then pat
yourself on the back, clean up the temperament and move on to another
section, preferably bass.

Yeh, 50 cents off is hard for aural tuners to hear, but don't sweat it.  15
minutes later, that tenor section is only going to be a couple of cents off,
and even a lowly "aural" tuner <G> can improve that down to zero to 1 cent
off on the next pass.

Cheers,
Brian Henselman, RPT