Birdcage, more....regarding pitch raises

[Kenneth W. Burton]

	Jay,

	I assume you are speaking about aural pitchraising. When I began
tuning (a long time ago), I heard the unstruction (source unremembered) to
over pull A220 five beats for a 100 cent pitch raise and reduce that
amount proportionately for smaller raises. This has worked fairly well for
me but, of course, pianos are all different and, even when he overpull
more than that in the treble, some still end up flat after the first time
through.

	Ken Burton "Doctor Piano" Calgary Alberta

On Wed, 14 Oct 1998, Jay/Deb Mercier wrote:

> 
> 
> 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.
> >
> 
>