Fork accuracy

[Overs Pianos]

Hi C onrad,

>According to my laptop based RCT (which WAS inside last night),  the 
>fork was 441.4Hz. After warming up in my trouser pocket for a few 
>minutes to above ambient temp., it was at 439.9.
>
>Let's hear it for electronics which are not so affected.  My memory 
>is fading in my old age, but how do those who are strictly aural and 
>solely mechanical pitch source oriented deal with temperature 
>fluctuations?
>
>Conrad Hoffsommer

This is certainly a matter about which the remaining fork bashers 
amongst us need to be aware. When I was much younger and tuning at 
the Canberra School of Music, I was called to do an early morning 
tuning for one of the staff member's home piano before tuning for the 
day at the school. It was a cold winter morning and when I checked 
the piano against the fork, which had spent overnight in the car, it 
appeared to be seriously flat. So I set about pulling the piano up 
the fork, and after tuning it to my satisfaction left for the day's 
tuning at the school.

Within hours I received a call from the distraught pianist. Her piano 
was too high, for the clarinetist she was accompanying, to reach. I 
had 'set the pitch' with a 'freezing' fork. The subsequent free pitch 
lowering and tuning, for the 22 year old novice, was a hard lesson. 
Ever since I have set the pitch of my tuning forks to be on pitch at 
body temperature. The fork is always the first item to be put under 
the belt as the remainder of the tuning gear is taken from the road 
kit.

Ron O.
-- 
OVERS PIANOS - SYDNEY
    Grand Piano Manufacturers
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