Pitch Raise, was: Standard Pitch

[Ron Nossaman]

>Yeah, I can tune a piano in less than an hour but it ain't going to sound
>too good a week later.  Considering I probably hit a note 6-7 times while
>tuning/setting a pin (including a listening blow), a can't even fathom how
>it is possible to do a fine tuning in under an hour.

Part of this depends on how "fine" tuning is defined. It's quite possible 
to spend all day on one piano chasing minutiae that isn't going to entirely 
resolve no matter what you do, and a lot depends on the piano. But I 
suspect something else. I think you're listening too long and tuning too 
little. You don't have to listen for three or four seconds to determine 
beat rates setting intervals. Keep moving. If you hit each string twice as 
many times and tune in the attack phase of the sound, rather than the 
diminishing sustain that most relatively new tuners spend most of their 
time in, you'll cut your time down considerably and probably produce a 
better and more solid tuning as well. This is especially useful tuning 
unisons, because you aren't listening to beats at all. You're listening for 
divergence - drift - eeeeoooooooowwwwwwwwwww. Hitting a string three or 
four times a second, you can hear the beginning of that divergence and 
chase it down very quickly. You may end up hitting each string 20+ times 
each, but you're moving through the piano faster. All this activity tends 
to settle the strings without pounding too, so it's not hard on the hands. 
You do make a heck of a lot of noise though, so the earplugs are a good idea.

Tuning times from 40-70 minutes, depending on the piano, but typically 
around 50. Pitch raise and tune is typically 60-75 minutes, again, 
depending on the piano. Some of them just fall into place and you get the 
impression of being carried through the tuning. Others make you think again 
about pursuing a career with Roto-Rooter. Those and the mega pitch raises 
are the ones that take 90 minutes.

Ron N