Very interesting question--

[John Ross]

I had one that I did a few years ago, it was over 300c down in pitch, not even, flat. Actually, it might even have been more than that. The first of the pitch raises, some notes had to be taken up over 200c.
I asked the guy, when it was last tuned, and he told me, that it had never been tuned, and he remembered when it was delivered, in 1929.
I brought it up, 1 semi-tone at a time, then a fine tune. No strings broke, and he hasn't called me since, even although, I told him, we were on catch up, and it would take a few tunings for it to stabilize.
John M. Ross
Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada
jrpiano at win.eastlink.ca
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: PIANOTECHNICIAN at aol.com 
  To: pianotech at ptg.org ; BEATLSONGS at aol.com 
  Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 10:20 AM
  Subject: Very interesting question--


  I wonder what the limit is as to how far flat a piano will go if it is never tuned. Let's say a piano was built in 1900, tuned many times in the factory until the strings were stretched out and the tune stabilized.
  If it were never tuned after that, would it reach a point, let's say, in the 1960's, 70's, or 80's where it would not go flat any more? And how flat would it end up being -- 150 cents? 200 cents? I'm curious because I've seen many old uprights that were about 150 cents flat, and I wondered if they were ever tuned over their 100 year lifetime.

  Jesse Gitnik
  NYC
  Tech since 1980
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