One more tuning question...

[Terry]

IMHO, floating the pitch is always something to be considered. However, it
should absolutely be addressed with the piano
owner/pianist/whomever-is-willing-to-take-responsibility. They need to make
the decision how important A440 (or whatever) is to them. Clearly, someone
playing in their home alone, will likely benefit from floating the pitch.
Clearly, a piano in any level of performance setting that is played with
other instruments, choir, etc. is going to benefit from a pitch adjustment,
if needed. But someone needs to decide if it is worth paying for!

For me, in my locale, the pitch thing is not a big issue. We just don't have
the seasonal fluctuations in RH that other areas have. When I float the
pitch on an instrument that I tune on a regular basis (at least once per
year), I'm staying between A442 and A439. If the piano is flatter than that,
I know it needs a pitch raise, because I know it will not rise significantly
in pitch at any other season of the year.

It must be tough rastling with pianos in Duluth!

Terry Farrell


> Julia,
>          Floating pitch is not IMHO dishonest but again, IMHO short
> sighted. I'm now dealing with a University about an hour from me which
> could really benefit from floating the pitch as the humidity fluctuation
is
> great, apparently. I, personally, can never get past the what if scenario.
> You know what I mean. What if someone is going to play along with a fixed
> pitch instrument and they are off. What if another instrumentalist tried
to
> tune to the freshly tuned piano and can't. Those kinds of things.
> best,
> Greg Newell