Pitch Raising Techniques

[David Ilvedson]

I've thought about leaving the piano above pitch...maybe +5 cents.  Seems like a good idea on the seldom tuned piano...speaking of which I'll leave my own piano a little sharp next time...;-]

David I.



----- Original message ---------------------------------------->
From: Dave Nereson <davner@kaosol.net>
To: Pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org>
Received: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 00:45:50 -0700
Subject: Re: Pitch Raising Techniques


>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "Matthew Todd" <toddpianoworks@yahoo.com>
>To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
>Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2004 9:15 PM
>Subject: Pitch Raising Techniques
>  > Can some of you tell me what pitch raising techniques work the best for 
>you??
>> Thanks!

>    For me, it's faster to raise pitch without the ETA (ETD).  I overshoot 
>between 20 and 50%, depending on the piano.  The amount of overshoot is 
>determined partly by an intuitive guess.  If it's a new piano that I suspect 
>has only had one or two tunings in the store, and it's two beats flat at A 
>49, I'll pitch-raise it to one beat sharp (50%).  And if it's 7 beats flat, 
>I'll still overshoot by 3 or 4 beats, which is more than an ETD might do, 
>but I know it's going to stretch and go flat anyway, plus most people let 
>'em go too long, so I might as well leave it a bit sharp.
>    But on an older piano, I don't overshoot as much because the strings are 
>already stretched, and some of 'em might break, so if it's, say, 6 beats 
>flat, I'll pitch raise it to 2 beats sharp (about 30%) at A 49.
>    If the piano is really old (before 1900), or if I sense or observe that 
>the piano seems brittle, unlikely to hold a tuning at a higher tension, or 
>has a propensity to break strings, or if I see that strings have been 
>replaced or spliced, I'll not pitch-raise it above A=440, and if it's really 
>flat (1/2-step or more), I'll advise the owner that it may not be advisable 
>to bring it up to standard pitch.
>    There are exceptions.  If I think it was up to pitch at some point not 
>too long ago, sometimes I'll tighten plate screws and/or seat bridge pins to 
>jostle the strings a bit at their bearing points, then take the pitch-raise 
>risk.
>    I strip mute the piano, tune the temperament using one octave and 4ths 
>and 5ths -- no other checks -- then do all the octaves up, right-hand 
>unisons coming down, left-hand unisons going back up, then the bass octaves, 
>then their unisons.  That's the fastest way for me.  I only do "unisons as 
>you go" for the final tuning.  I've tried doing "unisons as you go" on a 
>pitch raise and don't find it to be any more stable than my faster method, 
>plus I don't have to keep leap-frogging mutes.
>    --David Nereson, RPT 


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