C=256 hz? Heads up? Not bloody likely

[Ron Nossaman]

> My question has more to do with piano design.  Say you have a customer 
> who insists on a ~10 cent low tuning.  How does scale design impact 
> this?  Can you get a reasonably resonant piano out of this without 
> re-scaling?

That "coming to life" effect of pulling a low piano up to pitch has, 
I think, more to do with soundboard loading than scaling. I doubt 
that it's possible to anticipate before the fact how the piano will 
take the lower pitch.

If a customer insisted on the 32 cent low tuning, I'd tell them I'd 
be happy to charge for the pitch lowering and tuning, and the 
following pitch raise and tuning if they didn't like the sound at 
that pitch - with a follow up tuning in a few weeks in either case. 
Cranking pins is cranking pins.

Ron N