pitch raise question

[David Love]

Can't agree with either of these.  I routinely overpull (or overpush) on
pitch corrections as calculated by a SATIII (and have also used the
Verituner function).  That means around 30%, a little less for the bass, a
little more for the treble.  The pitch almost always drops right into place
with minimal corrections required for the fine tuning.  I prefer the pitch
to be as spot on as possible for a fine tuning, not above, not below.  I'm
not sure what the argument would be for having it off in one direction for
fine tuning unless it's just a comfort issue of not tuning from the sharp or
flat side.  All things being equal, if the pitch is off in a uniform
direction when you start, it will be off by some percentage in the same
direction when you are done.  A minimal discrepancy from the initial target
may not be audible, but it will be measurable.  

On pitch raises in the neighborhood of 100 cents when I have an old rusty
bucket of bolts I may not overpull to that percentage on the first pass, but
that's probably based more on a psychological reservation than a reality
based one.  My usual method when chip tuning a newly strung piano is to pull
the whole thing 30 cents sharp, let it set for 48 hours, lift level and
straighten and the pitch usually ends up pretty close to the target.  In
fact, I think that's the instruction given by Arledge when installing a new
set of bass strings.  

David Love
davidlovepianos at comcast.net 
www.davidlovepianos.com

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of David Andersen
Sent: Saturday, December 23, 2006 1:24 PM
To: ilvey at sbcglobal.net; Pianotech List
Subject: Re: pitch raise question


On Dec 23, 2006, at 11:09 AM, David Ilvedson wrote:
> I agree on no overpull from -100 cents.   I still don't overpull in  
> anycase, other than leaving the rotation on the sharp side. right  
> to pitch, unisons as I go and then do it all over again...I don't  
> get these huge drops in pitch everyone seems to get with a pitch  
> raise.   I WILL have to bring it up again a bit...10 cents maybe.    
> Over-pulling for me would leave the piano on the sharp side for the  
> second pass....maybe that's what some want...

This has been my experience as well. IMO, the perfect platform to do  
a fine tuning from is 2-3 cents flat throughout, so I want it to be  
slightly below pitch after the pitch raise. The only section of the  
piano which I may have to rough tune twice is the high treble, and  
that's only on those 60-100 cent raises.  As an aural tuner, getting  
in my head about percentages and amounts of overpull really slows me  
down and kills the flow, man. Let your body do it, quickly and  
precisely.

David Andersen