Pitch Raising to A440.......Or Not?

[Tom Servinsky]

David,
I agree with you whole-heartedly about the reaction of the board after pitch
raising. However, never loose sight of the fact that many of these owners
have procrastinated for years since the last service.  I've lost hope
thinking that I'm some type of incredible influence and  this new customer
is going to change their ways, becoming more punctual about regular tuning
intervals.
Now there are the exceptions where there was a player in the family, then
there wasn't, and now (finally) the new player is screaming at them to get
this thing tuned.  But more times than none the lapse between tunings with
certain types of customers is  little to be desired. I shouldn't
complain...they account for paying many of my utility bills.
  With regards to the pitch destination, if I over -shoot and land at A442
after a 100c pitch raise, and it's in a home where the sanctity of A440 is
not an issue, I'm not going to be bothered. Performance hall, artist
type...different issue. The fact that unisons, octaves, and over-all
presentation of  tuning is in tact, I'm quite satisfied.
I have had situations where I had left the piano sharp (A442) and finally
the customer scheduled a tuning after several years. The beauty was walking
into a home where the piano is now at concert pitch and I breezed through an
effortless tuning.
 Tom Servinsky, RPT
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Love" <davidlovepianos@earthlink.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2001 5:10 PM
Subject: Re: Pitch Raising to A440.......Or Not?


> I don't think it's necessary.  If you do a pitch raise to get the pitch to
> 440 before you fine tune, the board reacts pretty instantaneously and a
> further drop in pitch over time is not likely.  This is assuming they tune
> it again within a reasonable amount of time which, by virtue of the piano
> being so flat to begin with, does not seem likely.
>
> David Love
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
> To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Sent: August 15, 2001 3:36 PM
> Subject: Pitch Raising to A440.......Or Not?
>
>
> > I do a lot of pitch raises. Many are significant - 30 cents to 150
cents.
> > These are pianos whose owner do not have the need of exactly A440. The
> last
> > few I have raised to A441 or A442 - figuring this will help speed
> stability
> > at A440. I have not heard of others doing this. So I must be doing
> something
> > wrong!  ;-)
> >
> > Waddaya'll think of such a thing to do?
> >
> > Terry Farrell
> >
>