And that is one thing I do everytime now. When I first started, I only lowered pitch on pianos with the visually rusted strings. Now, since then, I lower pitch on every pitch raise, even if the inside looks brand new! You are right though. I still have strings break, even after lowering the pitch. Oh well, extra $$$ huh? Of course, it screws up your schedule just a bit, but most everyone I have called to say I would be later are understanding. Then there are the tricks to try and guess if the piano will need a pitch raise over the phone (with new clients). I have heard some of you check the pitch over the phone. I have not done that. I make an educated guess over the phone, (with piano make, and years since last tuning). Most of the time, I am right, but there are a few exceptions. There was one Yamaha studio that hadn't been tuned in 13 yrs, and was so close to pitch. Then there was a Young Chang grand that was last tuned 8 months prior. It was 25+ cents flat. Of course, this client just moved here from Arizona. The thing I love is when the lady over the phone says it was tuned last year or so. I get there, play an A, and my ETD inevitably switches to G#. Come to find out by the man of the house, that is was last tuned 20 years ago! Sometimes you just can't win. TODD PIANO WORKS Matthew Todd, Piano Technician (979) 248-9578 http://www.toddpianoworks.com --- On Sat, 12/12/09, Piano Boutique <pianoboutique at comcast.net> wrote: From: Piano Boutique <pianoboutique at comcast.net> Subject: Re: [pianotech] Pitch Raising To: pianotech at ptg.org Date: Saturday, December 12, 2009, 4:48 PM Matthew, One thing I do is to back the string off, or lower it until the pin moves a good amount: then I pull it up to pitch. There is no scientific way to know if this saves braking strings, but I believe in it. As far as tuning the bass first, I have never heard of it, but there is a lot I haven't heard of. I do think that sticking to a normal pattern might be the best rout to take. William ----- Original Message ----- From: Matthew Todd To: pianotech at ptg.org Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 10:31 AM Subject: [pianotech] Pitch Raising Good morning everyone, Whenever I came across an old upright or grand that needed a pitch raise with rusted strings/pins, etc, I would alway notify the client before I began that there's a chance that a string or two may break during the pitch raise process. However, recently, I had several treble strings break on a Kimball console, several treble strings break on a Schimmel grand, and a bass string on a Baldwin, and several more treble strings on a spinet. I say this because each of those pianos I just listed showed no signs of string breakage, before I began. I guess I was a little surprised. Anyway, after those experiences, I now make it a point everytime I encounter a pitch raise, regardless of the piano, to let the customer know before I begin that a string or two might break. I also briefly explain to them why it could happen, along with the pitch raising process. Now, when I am the phone with the client before I schedule the appointment, I let them know about a possible pitch raise, but I don't let them know about possible string breakage until I see them face to face. That's just me. I always feel better when I let them before I begin, rather than not, and then a string does break, and then you may be left with some explaining. When I pitch raise, I do the bass first. I just do mainly cause an RPT told me that your tuning will be more stable doing the bass first. I have never personally tested this myself. After the bass, what I used to do was then proceed pitch raising one string out of each note all the way up the piano, then on the way down, do the unisons. However, the last few weeks I have tried something different. Instead of pitch raising one string all the way to the top, I did this: After I pitch raised the bass, I then focused on each individual section, i.e., I would pitch raise one string in the entire tenor section, then go back and pitch raise the unisons in that section. Then do the same thing in the treble, and finally, the extreme treble. I don't know if it is just me, but I found when I finished the pitch raise with that method, the pitch was much closer and more stable than how I did the pitch raise before. Comments anyone? Matthew -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20091212/8775e436/attachment-0001.htm>
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