Oops?

[John Ross]

Hi Warren,
I have been meaning to say something about this for a
while.
Anyone who has been playing a piano that grossly out
of tune, is going to notice such an improvement, they
are going to think you are a genius to get it sounding
so good. So don't worry, they didn't.
Just getting it close will be good enough, and tell
them to call you in 3-4 months, or whatever makes
sense depending on the environment, (low humidity
winter/ high summer) to retune.
Now before, you all get on my back. This is just for a
customer that didn't care. In fact they may not call
you for another 10-20 years. As long as it sounds
good, and they are satisfied, don't worry about the
miniscule differences. Some pianos show deficiencies
in not so exact tunings others don't, same for the
owners perception.
I probably explained this all wrong, but I hope, I got
the point across in a rough sort of way.
Regards,
John M. Ross
Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada
piano.tech@ns.sympatico.ca
----- Original Message -----
From: "Warren Fisher" <fish@communique.net>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, November 04, 2001 5:07 PM
Subject: Oops?


> The other day I was chatting with my customer (big
mistake right there),
> while setting up a SAT pitch raise of about 125
cents on a small
> console. Now I usually do a two stage PR with more
than 100 cents
> flatness to avoid over-stressing the strings and of
course in middle of
> octave 4, I get that lovely pranging sound!
>
> So what do I do now, go on and possibly break more
strings or reduce the
> overset?
>
> I chose the latter.  With the SAT at A440, I
continued (No more strings
> broke). Another mitigating factor- I normally
increase the pitch overset
> above the treble break by 15% of the measured
flatness, in this case
> 18-1/2 cents to allow for the lower pitches usually
found in the upper
> areas of neglected pianos.
>
> Now I have a piano at pitch to D4, -24 cents at A4
and about -15 in the
> treble.
>
> Being an old fighter jock, I attacked the biggest
problem first; the -24
> cents. Starting at D#4, I overset 6 cents and
proceeded to the break.
> Next I read the flatness in several areas of the
treble and averaged to
> -16cents. I overset 4 cents (I figured I had overset
enough on the first
> time through), and went to 88.
>
> What did I have now?  A mess!
> It was on pitch through the wound strings, about G3.
All the wire below
> D#4 was about 3 cents flat. D#4 to the break was 2-3
cents sharp and
> most of the treble was 5 cents or better flat.  Go
figure!
>
> Obviously, I don't have a real good mental picture
of what was going on
> there. A couple of times in the past, I would put
extra overset in
> somewhere in the pitch raise and for some reason not
get back into the
> page I was using and would tune a bunch of notes
with a zero in the
> right window.  When I went back over them with
correct settings the
> notes were always over-sharp on the next time
through. You have to
> reduce the overset through the section in error
about 10% and then go
> back up to the  original overset.
>
> Does anybody have ideas on this?
>
> Warren
>
>
>
> --
> Warren Fisher RPT
> fish@Communique.net
> 1422 Briarwood Dr.
> Slidell, LA 70458-3102
>
>