[pianotech] PR follow up

[Ron Nossaman]

Well, nobody asked, but in case at least that many care - in 
my world, David's got it right. I see no reason, presuming the 
piano's tunable in the first place, that it can't be left in 
an acceptable state of tune after a pitch raise. If, during 
the process, every realistic effort is made to pound the slack 
out of the back scale, followed by a real attempt to leave a 
stable string as you typically would, there's no reason you 
shouldn't end up with a piano as in tune as if you hadn't done 
a pitch raise. That's the de-fuzzifier. You can leave the 
piano reflecting your typical standard of tuning after even a 
substantial pitch raise. How long it will stay that way 
depends mostly, in my experience, on how well you were able to 
equalize segment tensions on both sides of the bridges. Some 
techs have no conception of this, and some are fairly good at 
it. I've done half-to-full semitone pitch raises, with 
instructions to call for another tuning when it becomes 
obvious it's needed, and tuned the piano two years later no 
more off pitch than a stable piano tuned six months ago. I've 
also had them quite rough in a month, indicating I hadn't 
gotten segment tensions equalized as I had tried, even though 
the piano was in good tune when I left. I think two weeks is 
rushing it some for the follow up. A month is more reasonable 
to me, or when it sounds like it needs it. But that's my call.

So, as usual, it depends.
Ron N