Aural tuning- 300 cents flat

[Greg Livingston]

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)
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