[pianotech] Pitch raising

[Gerald Groot]

Well, let's play.  When I was 18 years old, I raised pitch on an old upright
1 full tone to A/440.  I was timed by my mentor.  My first pass over it was
completed in 6 minutes.  That was 36 years ago.  I went over that piano to
fine tune it an additional 3 times after that and was done in 45 minutes.  I
asked him if this tuning would pass (he was an RPT) the PTG exams?  He said,
yes it would.  Is this something I do daily?  Heck no.  I don't care too.
But it is, something that can be done and something I have done many times. 

 

2ndly, I did not say how close to A/440 we were getting the piano on the
first pass.  You are assuming way to much now.  The main goal here, is to
raise the piano up to pitch and to get it as close to 440 as we can.
Remember this.  Pitch raising and fine tuning are completely separate from
one another.  We at this point, are only pitch raising.  We give it our best
guesstimate to get it close to pitch.  With many years of experience, we can
guess pretty darn close after tuning many thousands of pianos.  Do we make
mistakes in our guesstimates??  Sure we do.  That's where EDT's are nicer
for pitch raising.   My point
  We are raising pitch and getting that piano
CLOSE TO the target pitch of A/440 for the first pass only ASAP.  

 

Okay, now, let's change the time frame to make it more realistic for some of
you.  Let's say, we raise pitch 1 full tone in just under 10 minutes or even
15 minutes.  Now, let's say the piano is still 1/4 tone flat.  There is no
reason why we can't raise pitch 1/4 tone in another 10 minutes or 15
.  30
minutes total so far..
 OK, now the piano should be fairly close to pitch
and not so far out of tune any longer.  One final pass, oh, let's say, 20
more minutes for a total of 50 minutes.  Is that more realistic?  

 

The thing is to get the piano on pitch.  Then worry about the fine tuning.
If it is still way off from pitch, do it again. If we waste 45 minutes just
getting the piano on pitch, what's the sense in that if we can do it in
10-20 minutes? 

 

If we can use an EDT to raise pitch 100 ¢ and not worry about how far up we
are raising the treble, we most certainly can do likewise without using an
EDT.  

 

Again, we are NOT talking concert tunings.  

 

 

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Terry Farrell
Sent: Friday, July 02, 2010 5:58 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Raising rates in recession

 

I've always heard that strings on a piano should be within two cents of
desired pitch prior to doing a fine tuning. I have found that to be
generally be true. Certainly if it is not for a high end concert, pitch
prior to tuning could even vary a bit more than that. However, I have
certainly found that for a truly good tuning, the piano has to be pretty
darn close prior to the tuning pass.

 

You (or anyone) can raise the pitch of a piano that is 100 cents flat, each
string to within two cents of target pitch, in five minutes? If the piano is
a semi-tone flat, how do you even know what the target pitch for any given
string is (to within two cents)? Believe me, my hat if off to you if you can
do it, but I don't think it is even remotely possible. And you'd really want
to make two passes in the treble so as to not be pulling the strings 60
cents sharp!

 

Wait, wait....... no, this is July.........  April 1 was a long time
ago...... 

 

Terry Farrell

 

Gerald Groot wrote:








.....until I could easily raise pitch 1/2 tone in 5 minutes.

 .....can raise pitch 1/2 tone and fine tune a piano in 30 minutes and it
will sound good.  

  

 

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