Otto Higel Co

[Kenneth W. Burton]

      Lawrence,

      This may sound brutal, but I do it all the time. I would set my
starting note at A455 and pull the pitch up in one pass. Of course, I
stripmute the whole piano and raise all the middle strings, then all the
left strings, then all the right strings. Rarely is string breakage a
problem.
      I feel that a piano which is not at A440 is not in tune.

      Ken Burton        SEE YOU AT SEASIDE!
      "Doctor Piano"
     Calgary, Alberta


On Sun, 10 Mar 1996, Laurence Beach wrote:

> Dear Pianotech people:
>
> Actually, the subject maybe should have been Henry Herbert player piano.
> Anyway, I was called to tune one of these the other day.  It was about
> 110 cents flat.  The first thing I did after removing the action and such
> was to dab a drop of protech at each bearing point on the V-bar.  At
> first I was timid and only raised the pitch up to 80 cents flat.
> However, I discovered much to my delight, that protech worked so well
> that I would raise it to -50 cents flat.  I never heard one ping of a
> string breaking from its bearing point.  Considering I hear this on new
> pianos even, when I have to pitch raise them, that was quite remarkable.
>
> As for the piano itself, which was made in the very early 20th century,
> it seems in remarkably good shape, if no work has been done on it for
> quite some time.  It is very dirty inside, and the action generally
> worn.  The tuning pins, although not tight like a new piano, were
> reasonably tight to hold the pitch.  Other than the tuning, the first
> thing that is necessary it to replace the hammers.  My question is, is it
> worth it?  Replacing the hammers would go a long way to restoring the
> tone, although the strings probably should also be replaced because the
> bass strings are still the steel type.  I gather that the owners don't
> really want to spend too much on the piano.
>
> I also have a second question.  When I pitch raised, no strings broke,
> and the piano seemed to respond well.  The pitch droped between 20 to 30
> cents during the pitch raise of basically 50 or 60 cents.  I felt this
> was acceptable, since the drop was quite even.  How safe is it to raise
> the pitch to A440?  Is there any way I can find out the original standard
> for the pitch of this piano?  Thanks in advance for your input!
>
> Laurence Beach
> Vancouver BC
> Canada.
>
>