Pitch Raises (was: Birdcages)

[Ron Nossaman]

Hi Z!R-RPT&PB, 

I'm pretty pitch senseless (nearly perfect), so I'll spend a quarter and
take a shot. 

Let there be a fork, 2 tined, for a pitch source. Mine happens to be a C,
but you can rag me about that later, because that isn't the issue in this
round. It matters not whether you use a C, or an A for this procedure.
Everything here works the same with either starting pitch. When determining
the initial overpull, I listen to the fork against C-4, check C-4 with C-5,
C-6, C-3, to get a feel for what the pitch of this piano actually is. C-4,
or A-4, will often lie to you so you will do the pitch raise from the wrong
starting pitch and end up at a place you don't want to be. Generally, the
farther C, or A, -4 is (are?) from the low end of the tenor bridge, the
closer they will represent the actual pitch of the overall piano. That's my
personal observation, without documentation, witnesses, or collective wisdom
from past generations. Note, also, that octave 6, or thereabouts, is lower
than most anything else. Having chosen a starting pitch, I tune my C-4. I
never have consciously counted beats, and I really don't know why. I do it
proportionally. If it's *this* low, I overpull *this* much. If it's a
Currier, it's *this* much more. If it's a Kimball, it's anybody's bloody
guess, but somewhere in the ragged vicinity of *this* much more than seems
reasonable. If it's a good quality, solid, older, etc, piano, I won't
overpull quite as much. It's mostly dead reconning based on experience and
the chosen starting pitch that sets the initial pitch. I set a temperament,
quick and dirty, a little sharp of 'correct' above my C. Octaves up to the
first break, stretching just about to my original overpull proportion. Down
to the bass break tuning straight octaves. Upper bass a little sharp, on
octave through center bass to the bottom. Pull bass strip, and tune unisons.
Above first tenor/treble break, sharp by the overpull proportion plus a
little bit. This area drops a lot AS YOU LOAD it. Second octave (depending
on where the break is) past break, taper overpull down smoothly to on octave
at C-8. Tune unisons from C-8 down to bass tenor break. No magic, no lights,
takes me about 20 minutes (so I'm slow), and I can usually put most of the
piano within a beat (or so) of on pitch, with the occasional dramatic
exception, from a half semitone down. 

I fudge one pass tunings the same way when the piano is really too low to
not do a pitch raise, but the time doesn't allow it, or the piano and
circumstance aren't worth it, or the customer habitually lets the piano go
too long between tunings, or the climate control is such that it's a
ridicules gesture to tune it in the first place. The things to look out for
here are the tendency to pull the low bass too high, and leave the octave 6
area too low. 

That's my take. Not too perfect, I trust.  %-)

Ron
 

>Perhaps someone could elaborate on what aural techniques work best when
>their sense of pitch is considerably less than *perfect*?++
>
>Z! Reinhardt RPT and PitchBitch
>Ann Arbor  MI
>diskladame@provide.net
>

 Ron