[pianotech] Question about perfect pitch

[Chuck Behm]

Greetings,

        Are people with "perfect pitch" really bothered by  music played
on an old upright that is tuned say,  60 cents or a half step flat because
it
cant be brought up to pitch?


Thank you,
Julia
PA

Julia - In my experience, a lot of the times when someone calls and tells me
that there piano can't be tuned up to pitch, it turns out that it's at the
advise of a tuner who either doesn't want to risk breaking strings (which of
course can be repaired or replaced), or who truly believes it will harm the
piano, or is just too lazy to put in the extra time and effort. The only
circumstance that would cause me to recommend against a pitch raise would be
a crack (even just a hairline one) in the plate. I did have a plate break
once under those circumstances, and never want to see it happen again.
.
Aside from string breakage, or pin slippage, there usually is no reason a
piano may not be brought back to pitch. If I were to advise a customer on
the procedure, I would warn them about the potential for additional cost for
string replacement, and also give them my standard warning about the
possibility of breaking the plate, which I compare to the chances of an
airliner going down. In other words, it could happen, but it's sure not very
likely.

 I also explain that until the piano stabilizes, it will need to be tuned
often, as in at least twice a year, and not let go again for another decade.
Otherwise they will be back in the same boat all over again.

If a customer insists on tuning the piano flat, I will do it once, but then
defer to another tuner. Chuck
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090508/2210fa0a/attachment.html>