stability of pitch raises (Ron's question)

[Greg Newell]

Ron,
    First, I don't charge extra for a pitch raise/tuning done in one pass. If I
may offer a guess as to why some might it would simply be that ETD's cost money.
Since the pitch raise is one of their primary feature's perhaps some justify that
this is a way to recoup this part of the investment.
    O.K. I'll admit that I am just grasping at straws here with that last
statement but it does leave me an opening to pose a question regarding pitch
raises. Has anyone ever tried (using an ETD, of course) doing the first pass
simply to pitch and the second pass with the overpull feature? What I mean is
taking a stock tuning for XYZ piano and tuning only to stop the lights, strobe,
whatever in one, fast, single pass. Immediately after that is finished either use
that same "stock" tuning or measure and create a new one and then incorporate the
overpull feature all the ETD's now have. I find this intriguing because it seems
to be easier to use TuneLab this way  and probably would be for Cybertuner as
well. I found, just today, that tuning chromatically with that "stock tuning" on
a piano that was over a whole step flat was faster NOT trying to measure the
notes for overpull during the first pass. I felt that even the overpull feature
would not leave me very close from that far away and I was more interested in
speed than accuracy anyway. I'm a firm believer in speed the first time through
because I feel that I'm not giving it a chance to fluctuate away from me if I go
fast enough.
    Long story short I got pretty acceptable in tow fast passes from over 200
cents. No broken strings. Never will be stable with only that but it can be
played. What say ye?

Greg

Ron Nossaman wrote:

> OK folks,
> I got a couple of good responses to the actual question early on, but this
> has once again wandered off into a series of answers not relating to the
> question asked. The question was, and still is:
>
> ************************************************************************
> If folks are habitually doing two pass tunings anyway, and since they're
> probably using an ETD that does pitch raises within a couple of cents of
> dead on in one pass (as we read repeatedly), why would they find it
> necessary to charge anything above the cost of a tuning for a pitch
> adjustment?
> ***********************************************************************
>
> I do, believe me, understand that it takes longer and is more work to do a
> two pass pitch raise and tuning than a one pass tuning. I also understand,
> believe me, that you can't do a substantial (no numbers, just somewhere off
> pitch) pitch correction as accurately in one pass as in two. That's why I
> didn't ask that particular question - nor am I likely to. I am, in
> practice, an active tuner/technician, and live this stuff on a daily basis
> so I'm quite familiar with the reactions of pianos to pitch adjustments. I
> don't need the sales pitch, I'm merely asking for an explanation answering
> my question. If anyone is interesting in clearing this up for me, please
> read the question again and, if what you habitually do corresponds to the
> question in that you (1) habitually do two pass tunings, (2) tune with an
> ETD, and (3) charge extra for pitch adjustments, I'd like to hear your
> reasoning justifying the extra charge.
>
> I also asked another related question regarding how those who charge for
> pitch adjustments based on how far off pitch the piano is, determine how
> far off pitch the piano is. I still haven't gotten an answer on this one,
> which baffles me. This has gotten so much traffic through the years that I
> was sure I'd get a veritable avalanche of cogent and clever methods from
> those who habitually quote cents deviation in their posts about pitch
> adjustments. How can one compute charges on something they can't define?
>
> Maybe it's just me, but I find honest answers to these sort of simple
> fundamental questions to be far more valuable, as well as far more
> difficult to get, than information on how to get tape residue off of keytops.
>
> Ron N

--
Greg Newell
Greg's Piano Forté
12970 Harlon Ave.
Lakewood, Ohio 44107
216-226-3791
mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net