=20 > Les, Ed and list... >=20 > Hell...o...Can anyone tell me a general rule about Chickerings=20 > and other makers that were not designed for A440. I have had a=20 > few bad experiences with pitch raises and breaking strings on=20 > Chickerings. I have heard that the correct pitch is printed on=20 > the plate. One of my bad experiences had no printing... >=20 > Thanks in advance... >=20 > David ilvedson, RPT > in my former net life i was pnotuner@gnn.com =20 Hi, Dave. Since no one else tackled this, I'll give it a shot. Back when Chickering was a independent compnay, that is before they became part of the American Piano Compnay in 1907, they did, indeed, write the pitch directly on the plate. It usually read "tune to international pitch A-435". After they became part of the APC, the indication of the pitch was dropped from the plate, even though at that time they were still tuning to A-435. The American Music Industries formally adopted A-440 as their concer= t pitch in 1925, although our Bureau of Standards didn't do so until 1936.=20 A-440 didn't become "International" in acceptance until a formal treaty in 1939. Thus all American-made pianos have been tuned to A-440 since 1925 and some makers were probably tuning to it before then. As regards Chickering pianos in general, 1925 is probably the date to go by as regards the pitch they should be tuned to. In other words, pre-1925, A-435; 1925 and on, A-440. There are, however, a couple of other consider- ations with reagrds to older Chickering uprights in general. Despite press to the contrary, those older Chickering uprights were nowhere near the same quality as Steinway uprights of the same vintage. Soundboard, bass and treb= le bridge and pinblock problems are likely to be in evidence in virtually any older Chickering uprights you encounter. So before attempting a pitch-raise= =F3 on one of these piano, I recommend pulling the bottom panel ane carefully checking out the bass bridge for cracks at the pins, or worse. Ditto for the treble bridge, too. If bridge problems are present, you'll only be mak- ing matters worse by attempting a pitch-raise. Also it's not uncommon to find older Chickerings, both grands and uprights alike, with strings so brittle that they've started to break of their own accord. Thus a pitch-raise on an older Chickering is almost always a dicey proposition at best. Despite a lot of negative feedback from others recentl= y, I wouldn't hesitate to use a rust-penetrant like Liquid Wrench, Wd-40 or CR= C 5-56 on badly corroded strings, especially in the upper register, at bearin= g points like the pressure bar. Such rust penetrants will actually dissolve t= he rust and return metal to metal contact, while lubricating the bearing point as well. Further, when you go to retune in a year or so, you will find that such penetrants are still doing their job and that the strings can be tuned without fear of breakage. When I first started tuning in the late 50's, mos= t of today's modern, space-age lubricants were unknown. One used what worked. I do about a thousand tunings a year. Mostly older pianos. The last time I broke a string was about 15-16 years ago on an 1865 Steinway that still=20 had it's original strings. In perspective that was about 15,000 pianos ago. I attribute my lack of string breakage to the judicious, controlled use of such rust penetrants, especially in the last octave or so in the high trebl= e. Such substances are applied in minute amounts with either a small artists brush or a tooth-pick, just enough to do the job. BTW, Art Reblitz, mention= s their use as well. While everyone spends the next week pointing out that such substances have no place in a piano, that WD stands for water-displace= - mant formula and has absolutely no lubricating properties at all, etc., etc= ., the next time you called upon to tune one of those old "Chickerings from Hell" you might want to try their use in the high treble section and note the results for yourself. And you might want to use 1925 as the A-435/A-440 transition date after duly noting the condition of the piano first. I hope you find some of this useful. Les Smith lessmith@buffnet.net
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC