how high(low) do you go?

[Conrad Hoffsommer]

Don, Dave,

Don, At 08:47 11/29/2000 +0000, you wrote:
>Unlike pianos organs are affect by the barometric pressure. It is not
>uncommon for a "great" flute stop to change 30 cents in pitch overnight,
>atleast where I live.

Right.
The reeds, as well as the flues, change constantly with changes in 
temperature and humidity as  both affect the density of the fluid passing 
through them.  There is a great chart in Audsley's "Art of Organ Building" 
which shows the pitch of flue pipes as the temperature changes.

>Dave, At 06:47 AM 11/29/00 -0600, you wrote:
> >I regularly tune the piano in a church here that has a pipe organ.  Organ
>tuners seem to have a different concept of "tuning".  I've measured several
>different "A"s from different ranks and found they range from +18.0 to
>-4.0.  This is not counting "celeste" stops.  This was measured 2 days
>after the organ "tuners" had finished their work.  I just tuned the piano
>at 440, and explained that this was the best we could hope for under the
>circumstances.

You can feel like a one-armed paperhanger when you try to tune different 
divisions of the organ together.  The organs here at school are not so much 
a problem since the heat/cooling is on constantly.  I have one church organ 
job, however, where I insist that the church be at the Sunday morning 
temperature and the swell shutters open at least three, if not twelve, 
hours before I tune it.   -BTW, I still have to touch up the reed stops at 
school every week - they float faster and farther than the flues.

It is a waste of everybody's time and money to be chasing pitch as the 
temperature changes.  What was the church like when you were there?  Heat 
blasting because they just cranked it up when you walked in the door?  You 
may have had difficulty tuning the piano for the same reason.

Tune the piano to 440 and like that olde stopped clock, it will match twice 
a day.




Conrad Hoffsommer - Music Technician -mailto:hoffsoco@luther.edu
Luther College, 700 College Drive, Decorah, Iowa 52101-1045
Voice-(319)-387-1204  //  Fax (319)-387-1076(Dept.office)

Education is the best defense against the media.