>Thanks Les for the information. I lowered it yesterday, but only to A 440. > I will check in a week or so, and maybe lower it at that time to 435. > > > > > > >At 11:02 PM 12/19/97 -0500, you wrote: >> >> >>On Fri, 19 Dec 1997, Edward Carwithen wrote: >> >>> I tuned a Hallet Davis & Co. piano today. Atlas indicates it was built >>> in 1885. Not a bad piano, but... It was 47 cents sharp on A4. A5 was >>> worse. The client says that the previous tuner indicated that pianos of >>> this time had a special tuning range. He was the 2nd tuner they had had >>> which had changed the frequency of the piano. >>> Here I come, and I lowered it back down to A - 440. I have to add that >>> there were a lot of replaced strings. Several had been tied off (very >>> neatly too), and several completely replaced. The sound board was also >>> split and repaired. this piano has been moved since previous tuning and >>> spent several months in storage >>> Anyone have any information about a "special" pitch for "pianos of this >>> time." Other than maybe tuning at 435, which is lower, I can't think of a >>> reason for tuning it sharp at all, much less almost 50 cents sharp. I >>> can't imagine that moving it, or storing it would cause it to go sharp, at >>> least not to that extent. >>> >>> Any thoughts??????? >> >>Yes--lower the pitch on that piano back down to A-435 as soon as you >>have the opportunity. If it's 50 cents sharp of A-440 NOW, with the >>heat already on in many places, and the humidity down, imaagine how sharp >>it might have been last spring or summer when the humidity was high. Al- >>though some piano manufacturers may have been tuning to A-440 by the >>early twenties, or even sooner, A-440 wasn't INFORMALLY adopted as stand- >>ard pitch by the manufacturers until 1925. It wasn't formally adopted by >>the forerunner of the US Bureau of standards until 1936 and it didn't >>become international in scope until 1939. The cause of the broken strings >>and the disintegrating soundboard is most likely trying to tune the in- >>strument to a higher pitch than it was originally intended for even when >>new. To continue to do so to an instrument that is well over a hundred >>years old is to just ASK for more trouble. Like maybe having the plate >>break on you. The problem most likely arose when the owner had it tuned >>during a period of low humidity. That tuner MAY have tuned it to A-435, >>or even, unknowingly to A-440. It most likely was later tuned during a >>period of high humidity which had pushed the pitch up to A-440, or higher. >>THAT tuner, being too lazy to take it back down to A-435, merely tuned it >>to where he found it--A-440, or higher. After a succession of tunings at >>higher than proper pitch, you now find it 50 cents higher than A-440. >>I would suggest that you bring it back down to proper pitch (A-435), >>realizing that it will rise again in the future. Inform the owner of >>what proper pitch is for his piano and write it on the plate somewhere >>inside so that the next tuner who comes along who doesn't know what >>he's doing will have a reference guide which he will probably ignore >>anyway. That way the owner won't be able to blame YOU if some night >>he's awakened by an explosion as the plate and/or soundboard let go >>due to excessive tension. I've never HEARD it happen, but I've SEEN >>what happens when called in the next morning to perform the autopsy >>and give the last rites. It ain't pretty. >> >>Les Smith >>lessmith@buffnet.net >> >> >Ed Carwithen >Oregon > >
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