Pitch Raise Questions

[Farrell]

Have you enjoyed your varying responses? Anything over 25 cents is a pitch raise (PR)? Anything over 4 cents is a PR? Use 25% offset? Use the SAT PR feature, but adjust offsets?

I am also a Randy Potter grad. What all the above means is that you need to experiment and find out what works for you in various situations. All the responses are correct - for the person responding. I would give you a whole additional set of responses!

My suggestion is to start by following Randy Potter instructions and SAT instructions. See how these guidelines work, and then modify them as you see fit, so that you get the results you want.

I don't think you will find any definitive guidelines for when a pitch raise is needed. It always comes down to a benefit/cost thing. If you do not use any pitch correction on a piano that is below standard pitch, and you use standard pitch as your target, you will ALWAYS end up with your tuning below standard pitch. Even if the piano is an average of ONE cent below A440, if you use no pitch adjustment and a one pass tuning, the each note on the piano will end up approximately 1/4 of a cent below A440. Now, that would be acceptable in most any situation.

But what many do with a SAT, is use the SAT PR feature to calculate a target pitch. Read your SAT manual. Instruction are pretty clear. Most techs would agree that using the SAT III PR feature on a piano that is between 2 and 5 cents flat will yield an acceptable tuning in one pass. Personally, I lean toward the 2-cent limit - some go to 10 or 20 cents in one pass. I'm simply not comfortable with that. But in any case, if you are doing a one-pass tuning on a piano that is one/two cents or more flat - use the SAT PR feature.

The SAT manual says to tune unisons as you tune each center string.

Doing two passes is strictly up to you and the results you want. Two passes will always get you a better tuning. On really junky pianos where there is no hope for a fine tuning anyway, I will go up to 10 cents in one pass. On any better piano, I will go two passes for anything more that about 2 cents flat. It just comes out better for me that way.

Regarding measuring how flat the piano is. The more notes you measure, the better idea you will have of average pitch deviation. I measure at least all the As, if not all the As and Ds, and sometime even more notes to get a real good idea of what I am dealing with and what my approach is going to be.

Hope this helps. Good luck with the course. Check back in.

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <euphoniac@juno.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, June 24, 2002 11:19 PM
Subject: Pitch Raise Questions


> I am currently a Randy Potter student with some questions about pitch
> raising.  When I measure the pitch of A4 with my SAT III, how low (in
> cents) should it be for me to need to perform a pitch raise?  Also, when
> performing a pitch raise, is it better to raise only the single strings
> all the way up, or should I raise all of the strings of each note as I
> go?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Don Palmire
>