Birdcage, more

[Norm Barrett]

    The subject of pitch raising reminds me of the time, when first starting out, the
SAT I would not read +/_ 100 cents. My task was to tune an old upright a half step
flat which would be on that piano a whole step pitch raise. I was very confused by the
process and wound up with the piano a half step sharp. Boy, did it sing!  No, not one
string broke. (I do better now.)
    I believe that lowering the tenion on a string first does release a seal and allow
you to pull the string up without breaking. Oh yes, sometimes a string will break and
many times you have hardly touched it and I don't have an answer for that, but it
happens.
    The way I pitch raise a piano that is more that 75 cents flat, (this includes
m3rd's), is pick a generic tuning in memory. Set my SAT sharp according to how flat
the piano is. If it was 200 cents flat I'd set the SAT 15 cents sharp or something
like that and tune all the A's on the piano. Lower the SAT offset 5 cents and tune all
the A#'s. Lower the SAT offset another 5 cents and tune all the B's and continue this
process until all strings have been pulled up. On a real flat piano I would go back
through quickly pulling strings just up to standard pitch, or if it was only a half
step low to begin with, I would use the SAT's pitch raise calculator and go thru a 2nd
pass. The real flat piano would require doing that on the 3rd pass. After all of this
the piano should be ready to do a final tuning at A 440.
    This may be more than what is necessary but it seems to work better for me to get
the piano ready for the final tuning. All of this is done in one visit and the first 2
or 3 tunings are quick. Any comments?

Norm Barrett
Memphis, TN

Phil Bondi wrote:

>
> ..i am in the process right now of bringing back to pitch( or as close as I can )
> a Cunningham Player..when I got to the piano 4 months ago, It was exactly a
> min.3rd flat..scared the hell out of me..Phil