Pitch raising on older pianos

[Farrell]

If the piano has problems, absolutely, you may not want to raise pitch. I
have gone to MANY pianos where I tell the customer: "Maam, your piano is a
half-step flat. I recommend raising it to standard pitch. (Give 'em all the
usual reasons)". They reply "Well, I would like to because Susie is starting
piano lessons, but the last tuner said that the piano was too old to raise
the pitch and it just wouldn't take it". Then, after looking at bridges,
corrosion on strings & bearing points, and wiggling a few tuning pins, I
suggest: "Maam, I don't see any structural problems that would prevent
raising the pitch to standard. There is always a risk of string breakage
when raising pitch, but I will try to err on the cautious side, and I do not
expect any problems." They say - "Cool, go for it!" I do it and almost
always, no problem.

Now the part I will get flamed for. I sometimes also ask whether the
previous tuner was an elderly gentleman. The answer has ALWAYS been yes. I'm
not sure why that is. I guess that was just the way it was taught years ago.
Or maybe these are tuners that don't replace strings?

Terry Farrell
Piano Tuning & Service
Tampa, Florida
mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com

----- Original Message -----
From: <RustRazor@AOL.COM>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2000 9:07 PM
Subject: Re: Pitch raising on older pianos


> I have found that on an older, not-so-valueable piano, it may be futile to
> try and pitch raise.  The piano may hold a tune great at 100+ cents flat,
but
> may be unstable at pitch because of an old pinblock.  In such pianos,
(like
> those ratty big old uprights), the customer may just want the piano in
tune
> with itself and uninterested in having a piano at pitch and definately
> uniterested in spending the extra money to do so.  so you may want to keep
> that in mind.
>
> _Matt