A 435 or A 440 ?

[David Nereson]

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org
[mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org]On Behalf Of KeyKat88 at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2006 12:27 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: A 435 or A 440 ?

Greetings,

         IMHO, I dont believe that a perfect pitch hearer would
hear it to any great degree. I'll tell you why: I have had music
teachers that claim to have perfect pitch never complain about a
piano being a couple beats sharp in the more humid months and
flatter in the winter heating months.

Exactly.

         I also had a few customers who claim to have perfect
pitch, never notice that their piano was flat after being tooned
by tooners that never correct the A that is suppose to be A-440,
and merely toon the whole piano to the A that is there(!), never
correcting the starting pitch.  When I took over a few of these
pianos I would ask them if they noticed that the whole piano was
alittle lower than it should be they said, no. What they did
notice, however, is that what was ssuppose to be equal
temperament, was not so equal. I think they are more sensitive
to relative pitch, than they are about a piano being just a few
beats sharp or flat.
Yes.

      Also in tuning training, I was told that the human ear
only really begins to notice pitch difference when it becomes 15
beats or more, sharp or flat. So, I would say, no they wont
notice a few beats.

Well, 15 beats is quite a bit.  I'd say that's easily
discernable by many people.   I was told that most human ears
don't notice pitch changes of less than three cents.  And MOST
don't.  (I know many are going to ignore that word 'most,' and
reply to this, saying that they can hear one cent, a tenth of a
cent, whatever).  But it varies from person to person.

         I would tune this piano you mention at 435, maaaaaybe
436, possibly it was designed to only take that much tension. A
beat or 3 wont be detected. Again IMHO.

Even if it were designed to be at 430, it would probably take
the tension of 440.  The plate, not necessarily the strings,
especially if old or rusted.
--David Nereson, RPT

Julia Gottshall
Reading, PA

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20060727/7c321130/attachment.html