pull up to pitch or leave it there?

[Joe And Penny Goss]

Stephen,
All of the below issues would cause me to consider tuning the piano to a non
standard pitch pluss one other or two.
The piano most likely was intended to be tuned to a low pitch and will sound
rather tinny at A440.
Its nice to see you are having fun<G>
Joe Goss
imatunr@srvinet.com
www.mothergoosetools.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Airy" <stephenairy@fastmail.fm>
To: "Piano Tech list - PTG" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, August 09, 2002 11:10 PM
Subject: pull up to pitch or leave it there?


> When you're tuning an older piano, what are some things you consider
> when deciding whether or not to attempt to pull the piano up to concert
> pitch or to leave it where it is?  (assuming the piano is no more than
> 50 cents (1/4 step) flat)
> I just tuned my cousin's Geo. Steck upright (I'd say approx. 52" -
> didn't measure it...) today.  The serial # looked like it was in the
> 13000s or 15000s - I don't remember - might have been 13543 or 13513 -
> but I think the 4th and 5th digits were 43, and first was definitely 1.
> Anyway.. this piano looked to be built in the 1880s or 1890s.  It had
> 88 keys, a 3/4 plate, was overstrung with an underdamper action.  Piano
> was approx. 40 cents flat, and it looked like several strings in the
> mid to high treble had been replaced not long before.  Considering the
> replaced strings and the 3/4 plate, I tuned it where it was.  The
> action definitely needs some work, and the piano could use restringing
> (unichords 1-10, bichords 11-27 (break between 26 and 27), and wrapped
> trichords 28-31 were quite dead sounding, and a lot of plain steel
> strings up to middle C seemed to be somewhat rusty, not to mention the
> strings in the upper treble that had been replaced.  Oh,  this piano
> had square shaped agraffe-like termination points throughout the entire
> piano.
> How do you determine whether or not to pull a piano up to pitch?
> --
>   Stephen Airy
>   stephenairy@fastmail.fm
>
> --
> http://fastmail.fm - Get back to work