tuning stability in pitchraises

[Joseph Garrett]

Terry,
Having done scaling for several years, it became apparent where the most
likely areas of string breakage would occur. Having said that, I
corolated(?) that with Dr. Sanderson's technique of pitch raising from the
bottom up, tuning unisons as you go. The original "pitch raise" program that
came in my SAT was the starting point. Initially it was inadequate, so I
started "tweaking" it until I started to get notes to land closer to where I
wanted them to be in a "one-pass" tuning situation. At the same time I tried
to keep in mind where the "danger areas" of string breakage were. As I do a
lot of Square Grands and Bird-Cage pianos, that are more prone to string
breakage, (IMHO), they were the criteria. I don't know if it is a fluke or
if I hit on the "balance" that brings the strings up to tension and settles
the structure, w/o breakage, but it really works for me. Hence, the article.
As I HATE to replace strings, I wanted to pass on the "joy". In all of this,
I made calculations of breaking strengths of strings in various areas,
pretty much on a regular basis, as I was improving on Dr. Sanderson's
concept. Another aspect of this, is that I NEVER use FAC. I personally found
it time consuming and not very effective for the type of tunings I want to
leave with each client's piano. (There are many SAT tuners that agree with
me on this one.)
Since I have been using this system, the string breakage is almost nil. Yes,
strings do break, but with this system I know that I have not done anything
to promote that breakage. Therefore I can better advise a client when their
piano absolutely needs to be restrung, with a good conscience. Too often I
have encountered clients that have been advised that their piano needs to be
restrung, when, in fact, it does not. At least with this system, we have
done everything possible to insure that the client will have a tuneable
piano that works for them, without the huge price of restringing. (ie a
piano that they can afford, now)
I know that this has been a long explanation, and I apologize if I've
annoyed those who aren't interested in this, but you asked and I feel
obligated to give my reasonings and thoughts. Thanks for asking.
Regards,
Joe Garrett
----- Original Message -----
From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2001 4:44 AM
Subject: Re: tuning stability in pitchraises


> Hi Joe. I just re-read through your article (yes it was Dec. '99) and I
have
> the same question I had back in '99. How does your SAT program differ
> significantly from doing an FAC and then pitch raising, or chosing a
canned
> program for a similar piano and going at it. This I ask beyond your good
> advice regarding to do a pass without overpull prior to using the overpull
> when there is any doubt regarding string strength. It seems to me you will
> always be better off using the overpull judiciously in the various
sections
> of the piano as so many are perhaps only a bit flat in the bass,
moderately
> flat in tenor, and more flate in treble.....or whatever (of course always
> being wary to not use too much overpull so as to be breaking or
> overstressing strings - the most I will ever do is about 15 to 20 cents
> overpull, i.e. correcting a 50 to 75 cent flat pitch). How does your
program
> improve over measuring FAC/canned-similar and using the pitch correction
> properly?
>
> Terry Farrell
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Joseph Garrett" <joegarrett@earthlink.net>
> To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2001 4:28 AM
> Subject: tuning stability in pitchraises
>
>
> > Paul,
> > It's obvious that your RPT is still a few years behing in the reading of
> his
> > Journals. The article I did, was based on the wonderful efforts of Dr.
> > Sanderson. His research prompted me to persue the knowledge further, and
> > hence a refined method of pitch raising w/o overstressing the strings,
> > structure and myself. Check your back issues, (I think it was December
of
> > 1999, but the remember don't work that well these days. <grin>). I have
an
> > upgrade for the numbers that is available for the asking.
> > Regards,
> > Joe Garrett
> >
>
>