[CAUT] huge pitch raise question

[Fred Sturm]

Hi Michelle,
    I'm another fellow "jerk tuner," meaning jerks of many different
amplitudes (some as small as enough to move less than .5 cent). I do almost
all pitch raises (and lowers) in two passes, the first usually with an
overshoot, at this point usually with the standard RCT overshoot. Have been
doing that for 25 years. Pre-ETD I estimated beats of overshoot. For raises
of a lot more than 100 cents, my first pass is to pitch, second is a pretty
good tuning in pitch raise mode - occasionally a final tweaking pass, but
I'm not that finicky with 100 cent + tunings. I'd have to disagree with
those who say it takes a number of tunings to get to a stable point. I
usually get there the second time I go to the house after a really major
change, and often that first tuning holds quite well.
    I have not experienced what you describe, except in that there are
occasional unexpected strings that break. There is sometimes a feel of more
resistance than usual in a string about to break. And there seem to be
individual pianos that are just "unlucky." I doubt very much your technique
is causing this problem (and I'm guessing you've just been "unlucky" a few
times).
    I just plow ahead and pull up pitch. When a string breaks, I get more
careful. When two break, I start reconsidering (maybe reducing overshoot to
zero, maybe considering leaving the piano flat to some degree). But it
rarely happens that more than two strings break on one piano in one tuning,
in my own experience. However, I, like Alan McCoy, am blessed with non-rusty
string climate, though pianos do move here from all over.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico


On 1/8/07 12:06 PM, "Michelle Stranges" <stranges at oswego.edu> wrote:

> Hi folks-
> 
> Happy New Year!
> 
> :D
> 
> It happens more often than I'd like (and once is enough to be honest)
> and while I "feel"  that it's not my lovely hammer technique ;)  ,
> maybe it's something to do with some sort of "string thing"..
> 
> Has anyone else run across this?
> (Or maybe a PTG article I have overlooked?)
> 
> Upon visiting a fairly new piano and finding it dreadfully flat (50
> cents or more) , I carefully yet quickly, raise it up at least half
> of what it was.
> And I do have a (good?) habit of initially moving the pin in the flat
> direction before moving it sharp in order to loosen any friction from
> any rust or whatever that may have accumulated. Just a *quick* jerk
> to the left- nothing serious at all.
> 
> Now.. having raised the piano up (with a second pass to at least get
> it up to pitch) I start doing a "fine tuning".
> 
> it is either at this second pass or my fine tuning where strings
> start to break.
> In the usual places too- nothing out of the ordinary.
> 
> (Am I doing "too many tunings" (up to 3  times) to raise this
> completely up? Seems like that wouldn't be an issue,  especially if
> it's new(er)?
> Have I introduced some sort of unusual friction/heat or something??
> 
> 
> Now this doesn't happen all of the time, but I am acutely aware that
> it could and I wonder if there's something in my technique or my
> sequence of pitch raising that makes these newer strings break. (I
> could understand some strings breaking if the piano was older..)
> 
> I know tuners who on the first go, bring the whole piano up tp pitch
> but I've always been a little leary of that.
> I'm wondering if they also have strings break on their second pass/
> fine tuning..
> 
> I fully realize that they (the strings) are now at different spots on
> all of the contact and termination points so I would assume that
> would add to the puzzle.
> And I'd like to also add that it seems that the tork alone on this
> 1/2 way-to-pitch, pitch raised piano feels MUCH higher than it did
> before (and more than "normal") and I chalk that up to the higher
> tension I have just introduced.
> 
> I am a jerk tuner.
> 
> (Stop laughing  :)
> 
> I would be VERY interested in viewing the number of passes you folks
> do to bring a  piano up to pitch and whether or not you've
> experienced this-especially on ones that aren't so old.
> 
> Hope this post reads OK- and I look forward to your responses!
> 
> :)
> Michelle
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