> Hi Ron, > > If what you postulate is true (or partially true) then would it be fair to > extrapolate from that to say that pitch lowering may often be less stable > that pitch raising? Hi Don, Partially true? What part is that? At least with pitch raising, you can whack the string hard after pulling it up and observe a sometimes drastic drop in pitch. Since the pitch responded immediately to pin movement, where else did that pitch drop come from than the back scale. That blow certainly didn't locally distort the plate, or I'll never tune another piano! When lowering pitch, you don't get the tension spike from the blow helping to pull the string through the bridge, since the high tension section is the back scale. So you don't get any way to force the issue. So yes, lowering pitch will be inherently less stable than raising. I know 73 people will now offer stories refuting that, but the mechanics support it. > It does seem odd that the back scale could "store" so much tension that in > Alan's case the pitch on the sharp notes was nearly as high as he found it > on the first visit. After all the back scale is often much shorter in > comparison to the sounding length. That argues that some other factors are > "in the mix". Fine, trot 'em out. The back scale and friction at the bridge pins is still by far the major contributer. Ron N
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC