This Needs A Definitive Settlement was RE: 12 cents

Richard Brekne Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no
Mon, 30 Jun 2003 21:17:36 +0200


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Alan wrote:

> Don wrote: "...if you pitch correct a piano ... and then tune it ... you
> may find that you wish you had waited to do the fine tuning. Piano
> frames shift. Sometimes this shift is very dramatic at the bass break or
> other areas."
>
> I may be wrong (always a distinct possibility) but didn't Dr. Sanderson
> and others test this whole business and determine that all changes to
> the piano caused by changing string tensions are immediate?
>

I was not aware of such testing, and would like to read some about it. But I
seem to remember a disscussion about this frame shifting thread last year,
where some claimed that plate stresses played a very important role in both
how the piano reacts to pitch changes, and why the piano changes pitch over
time. I will have to re-read some of that to remind myself of who said
what.... but there were some pretty strong conclusions made.

>
> I'd have to go back and look, but I'm pretty certain that Randy Potter
> has cited this information and stated, in effect, that the time-honored
> belief that pianos needed to "settle" following a pitch correction was
> not correct.
>

Well... I dont know, but I do know that time and time again have experienced
that a major pitch raise (100 ? cents) ends up being more stable if I waited
a few days to fine tune it as opposed to doing the whole job in one day.
Admittedly tho... I have done no formal study to confirm these results. So
of course... any formal study that has been done on the subject would be
interesting reading.

> Alan Barnard
> Salem, MO
>

As to some of the discussion surrounding rendering across the bridge. Don
may correct but I think his "pitch raise"  entailed something in excess of
minor pitch adjustments. But as long as we are on about that, I wonder if
its not easier to check out rendering problems across the bridge then one
might be tempted to believe. Aafter tuning a note pluck the backlength to
either measure the frequency or just get its pitch in your ear and then
stretch the backlength with a string stretching tool to force tension to
decrease on the backlength and increase on the singing length. Then hit the
key with a few hard blows to see how much it takes to get the backlength
back to its origional tension. If it returns then you have little problems
with rendering. If it does not.. then try just retuning the whole string
again by quickly lowering tension a bit and then drawing it back up. Recheck
the backlength frequency with what you started out with.  My  personal
experience tells me that bridge rendering is in general not a huge problem
for tuning stability. Sometimes for sure... but by and large it doesnt look
that way. Same thing for rendering in general. It can be a pain in the
pattoootey for sure... but I dont see a lot of pianos that dont stay tuned
because of rendering problems getting the best of me.

JMV

Cheers
RicB


--
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
UiB, Bergen, Norway
mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no
http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html
http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html


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