Hello, friends, The super-flat piano mentioned in my original post was able to hold its pitch at 425. I usually just crank these babies right up to 440; sometimes a bit higher if the piano is relatively new, then settle them back down to 440. I might be there all day but I will eventually get it stable. I hate to leave a piano under 440 and hardly ever do, and only then for structural reasons. I didn't mind the three broken strings; they were in the high treble, above the dampers, so they were easy to reach and I needed the practice. What I worry about is bridges cracking, since no knot will fix those. At this time, I don't do shop work, and I'd have to farm it out (if I could find someone to agree to do it.) As for getting an ETD to help with pitch raises, well, I wish I could but with two kids in college, buying the daily newspaper sometimes can seem like a luxury. For the time being, I'll be 100% aural. If you've never dared a drastic pitch raise, here's what I do: -tighten all screws -strip-mute the whole piano to one string per note -pull A4 to 440 (if you dare) -tune A3 to A4; then A2, etc. all the way down -do the same thing for all the As going up -then tune the Es up and down, then the Bs, going through the cycle of 5ths for the entire piano (F#, C#, G#, D#, Bb, F, C, G, D) so the added strain is spread throughout the instrument -pull the unisons in -start the process over; you'll be much closer and more stable. -finally, begin to fine-tune the piano. It should be quite stable then. _______________________________________ Gregory P. Livingston, Piano Tuning and Service 781-237-9178 Piano Technicians Guild (associate member) * * * Always remember September 11, 2001
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