Question About Pitch Raises

[David Ilvedson]

Or you can take readings on your piano with a SAT III or other ETD and determine in seconds exactly how flat 
or sharp or in tune your piano is anywhere on the instrument.  Save the ears for fine tuning once the piano is in the ballpark...
Probably the best investment in sanity you can make is an ETD for rough tuning a piano before tuning...IMHO

David Ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, California






Original message
From: KeyKat88 at aol.com
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Received: 4/5/2006 5:26:24 AM
Subject: Re: Question About Pitch Raises


 
Greetinhgs,
 
            I'd say the average amounts of flattness over the spanse of the paino would roughly determine the amout that the piano is flat. After my WHOPPING 34 months in this business, what I do is "feel" the piano out. I first mute all but one string of F33.  Then I check individually, all 3 of A37's(on reeeely cheap pianos,  F33 or A37 may only have 2 strings) against F33 to determine how much it beats, by using the M3rd to A440 fork test.  If the beating is outrageously fast and I cant grasp the number of beats per second, then I pull up the one string of F33 till I can hear a determinate amount of beating, then I re-do the M3rd to A440 fork comparison. Then I check aurally by 3rd-10th tests, individually, all 3 strings of A49, and all three of A61as well. I also check the A's below A37, by 6 to 3 teats and by  M3rd/10th. This gives me an idea of how flat the piano pans out all over cross most of its span.
 
       If a piano is 2-4 beats flat and it is at the end of the heating season like April, (I live in the Northeast where the heat is on at least 5 months of the year) then no pitch raise is needed; I just tune. Any lower, the customer is consulted and asked if they want a pitch raise or not. If the piano is 2-4 beats sharp and it is July thru Sept (humid summers here in the Appalachians), . I just tune in that case as well. 
 
        If the piano is lower than A440 in the summer, I inform the customer that the piano is flat but the best time to pitch raise it and tune it is during the heating season. I dont like to pitch raise in the summer (humid) months, because what if it gets more humid?...no, no I dont chance that.
 
       You may want to be cautious on old, old uprights. In the U.S.A.,  A440 became standard pitch in 1939.    An older turn of the century piano is usually never meant to be up to A440. I was told somewhere along the line, by a senior tuner,  they are to be tuned to about A435. That is where I put them if their age can even withstand that! Old age can cause lifting of bridges, loose tuning pins and string rust, which are other causes why pianos sometimes cannot be pulled up to 440.  Hope this helps. 
 
Julia Gottshall
Reading. PA 
 
     
In a message dated 4/1/2006 12:01:45 PM Eastern Standard Time, rfinley at rcn.com writes:
Please could you explain to me how you determine if a pitch raise is necessary on a piano and by how much? The question I have is that the strings on the piano might be flat by different amounts, so is the amount of pitch raise determined by the flattest note or the average of the amounts of flatness of several notes, spread over the piano?
 
With an ETD such as the SAT III you can determine how many cents flat a string is by looking at the display and then use it to perform the pitch raise. How do you determine this aurally and do the pitch raise if you don't use an ETD? Thank you for your help. 
 
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