[pianotech] Pitch raising

[Terry Farrell]

> 2ndly, I did not say how close to A/440 we were getting the piano on  
> the first pass.

Okay, that seems realistic (kinda). So if a "fine tuning" requires a  
piano to be within two cents of target pitch, what good does that do us?

> Again, we are NOT talking concert tunings.

Right. So what level of tuning quality are we talking?

Terry Farrell


On Jul 2, 2010, at 8:03 PM, Gerald Groot wrote:

> 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.
>
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