This Needs A Definitive Settlement was RE: 12 cents

[John Ross]

I can see in a concert situation, being this fussy.
But I feel for the majority of people, this is overkill. Especially if it is
in an area that has short term humidity changes.
It is really overkill, for the people that have them tuned every 5 or 10
years, whether they need it or not.
I am talking as someone, that does not just tune grands, and tune them
multiple times a year, and say a pitch raise is needed for some small over,
or under amount of cents. Maybe some people would notice, but I don't think
I ever ran into any of them.
Lets face it the humidity variations day to day, can make some difference,
so is it really worth it to be so picky? If the customer mentions it, yes.
How many of you have had a customer complain about a piano being off a
couple of cents?
 Unisons being off, yes.
Are some people trying to impress others, about how exact they are?
Should I, or shouldn't I send this??
Awe what the heck, why not. :-)
Regards,
John M. Ross
Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada
jrpiano@win.eastlink.ca
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Thomas Cole" <tcole@cruzio.com>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, June 30, 2003 4:27 PM
Subject: Re: This Needs A Definitive Settlement was RE: 12 cents


> I'm not aware of any science other than what Dr. Sanderson has done, but
> I remember hearing about a demonstration of string settling that was
> performed at Tuners Supply, Sunnyvale, CA some years back (by one of the
> early California settlers ;-).
>
> An old upright was pitch raised to 440, after which the back of the
> soundboard was pounded vigorously with a rubber mallet, along the line
> of the long bridge, and it was later found that the tuning had slipped
> significantly.
>
> I'm not suggesting this as a method of doing single-visit pitch raises
> as it probably wouldn't go over well with most owners - this was only a
> demonstration, after all, and it tends to verify what Ron N. posted
> about friction across the bridge.
>
> Another thought is that if a tuner were to delay the second tuning for a
> couple of weeks, it might not help matters much of the piano were not
> played during that interval. If the pitch raise is not challenged by
> pounding or significant weather changes, I would doubt that a majority
> of the strings are going to ooze through the bridge pins on their own.
> So it may be a judgment call whether it's better to come back for the
> fine tuning.
>
> An interesting experiment, which might even work in the field, would be
> to apply some kind of vibration to the soundboard after a pitch raise.
> You could warn the customer about the unusual noise it would produce,
> and it wouldn't look like you were trying to destroy the instrument.
>
> Tom Cole
>
> Alan wrote:
>
> >Don wrote: "...if you pitch correct a piano ... and then tune it ... you
> >may find that you wish you had waited to do the fine tuning. Piano
> >frames shift. Sometimes this shift is very dramatic at the bass break or
> >other areas."
> >
> >I may be wrong (always a distinct possibility) but didn't Dr. Sanderson
> >and others test this whole business and determine that all changes to
> >the piano caused by changing string tensions are immediate?
> >
> >I'd have to go back and look, but I'm pretty certain that Randy Potter
> >has cited this information and stated, in effect, that the time-honored
> >belief that pianos needed to "settle" following a pitch correction was
> >not correct.
> >
> >As this issue has a definite impact on the way we conduct business, I'd
> >like to see a definitive answer here, not just opinions or anecdotal
> >experiences.
> >
> >Anything, anyone?
> >
> >Alan Barnard
> >Salem, MO
> >
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