PRs climbing sharper

[Paul Chick (EarthLink)]

Tom
I've noticed this when the piano was pitch raised in winter with low
humidity, and the summer's high humidity has caused it to go sharp.  The
most noticible is tuning school pianos in late winter and then tuning them
in August for the new school year.

Paul Chick
----- Original Message -----
From: <Tvak@aol.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 29, 2002 8:11 AM
Subject: PRs climbing sharper


> Here is something I've never seen mentioned in books or on the list but is
a
> consistent phenomenon to my experience.  When I return to a piano which
had a
> big pitch raise, I find that the piano is sharper than where I left it.
For
> instance, yesterday, I returned to a piano that I raised 6 months ago from
> 100 cents flat to A438 and found it at A440.  You could explain that by
> factoring in the summer humidity in this case, but I find this to be true
no
> matter what time of year.  Tune it in the fall, come back in the spring
> before the windows open up and it's still sharper than where it was tuned
to.
>  This phenomenon is so consistent that I now tune really flat pianos to
A438.
>  Otherwise, I play tag with A440 and have to lower the pitch on my return
> visit.
>
> This only happens after big pitch raises, of 35 cents or more.  I use RCT
to
> pitch raise; whether it takes two passes or one, either way, my last pass
is
> on a piano that is very close to the target pitch level.
>
> Comments?
>
> Tom Sivak
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