Birdcage, more....regarding pitch raises

[Jay/Deb Mercier]

I agree with Jim regarding pitch raises.  I've heard the common phrase from
the client:  "The last tuner said it will take two tunings to bring the
pitch up to A=440."  I believed this when I first started tuning 5 years
ago, then read Larry Fine's book, and tried performing full pitch raises on
one trip with great results -- and continue to do it this way.

Now I find it tricky to know how much I raise the pitch over A=440 in order
for the pins to settle back to A=440 by the time the pitch raise is
complete.  Many times it will fall into the correct pitch perfectly, but
sometimes I run across an old, stubborn upright where the pins stay where I
bring them up, meaning that I have to lower the pitch after the raise.  And
then there are the pianos that no matter how high (within safe reasoning) I
overextend the pitch, it still needs that second pitch raise - I'm finding
this common on Samicks (but I'm not picking on Samicks).

Is this procedure common/safe with anyone?  What do you do when guessing how
much to overextend the pitch for it to fall back to A=440?

Any feedback is appreciated and thanks in advance!

Jay






>HI Phil:
>
>I've always looked at pitch raising as kinda' like cutting off a dog's
>tail inch at a time so it wont hurt so much.
>
>Actually, there is no reason to not raise the pitch all the way to 440
>on the first pass. If the structure is not strong enough to stand it, it
>will collapse by the time you get there anyway. Why not get the anxiety
>overwith in a hurry. After the first pull up, the pitch will drop back
>about 25% of the amount you pulled it up. If you use the full temperament
>strip method, it will drop about 33% because, but the time you come back
>to tune out the unisons, the middle strings will have settled about 10%.
>
>After the first pull up, the second pull can be overpulled by 25% of the
>amount it fell after the first pull up.  For extreme cases like the one
>you mentioned, it will take a 3rd tuning.  All of this can be done in
>one trip. Most of the settling happens almost immediately. I have done
>this procedure many times and come back a year later to find the piano
>right on pitch.
>
>Jim Coleman, Sr.
>