Let's Get This Settled was How to explain a pitch adjustment..and!

[Ron Nossaman]

> So an adjunct question: Let's say we find a piano 15 cents flat. We pitch
> correct and fine tune and walk out the door with a follow-up appointment
> set for three months. When that day arrives, for those who have set such
> appointments, is the piano any flatter or more sour than it would have been
> if we found it A440 but still came back in three months?

In my experience, the bigger the pitch raise, the more erratic the 
tuning will be three months later. There's no way to tell, doing 
that pitch raise, to what degree the string is immediately rendering 
through the bridge, so the unequal segment tensions will settle in 
and more nearly equalize over time, leaving the tuning rougher than 
if it had been done on a piano already at pitch.

Incidentally, in this part of the world, school system pianos get 
knocked down in the Fall, just before it gets cold, and pulled up in 
late Winter, just before it gets warm. It's typically a 15-20 cent 
pitch adjustment each way (for which no one will pay, beyond the 
base tuning cost, which they expect to be discounted), and the 
follow up tuning will be at the next scheduled 15-20 cent pitch 
adjustment. This is year after year after year. Too often, the same 
applies in homes. They don't expect a discount, but they aren't 
about to pay for pitch adjustments twice a year, or do follow up 
tunings in between.


> Certainly I've restrung pianos and found them pretty sick in a couple of
> months but have always attributed that to new wire stretch, not tension
> settling.

Beyond initially getting the piano to pitch and minimally stable in 
the shop, I don't think strings really stretch that much after a 
week or two (if that).
Ron N