Or do what a visually impaired friend of mine did. Have a few forks made up with identical pitches (A=440 Hz) but marked A=440, A=441, A=442, etc. I seem to recall they went up to A=445. Then ask the person making the request to pick out the appropriate fork. Claimed he never had a problem. ddf Delwin D Fandrich Piano Design & Manufacturing Consultant 620 South Tower Avenue Centralia, Washington 98531 USA Phone 360.736.7563 Cell 360.388.6525 Fax 360.736.5239 E-mail 1: del at fandrichpiano.com E-mail 2: ddfandrich at gmail.com | -----Original Message----- | From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org | [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of David Ilvedson | Sent: April 29, 2009 5:04 PM | To: pianotech at ptg.org | Subject: Re: [pianotech] CONCERT PITCH 440/442? | | I am beginning to like the idea of leaving the piano at 441. | Close enough to 440 and 442... | | David Ilvedson, RPT | Pacifica, CA 94044 | | ----- Original message ---------------------------------------- | From: "Delwin D Fandrich" <del at fandrichpiano.com> | To: pianotech at ptg.org | Received: 4/29/2009 5:01:06 PM | Subject: Re: [pianotech] CONCERT PITCH 440/442? | | | >Probably me. This was the approach I took some years back when I was | >faced with a similar problem. I had (have) no problem tuning | pianos to | >whatever pitch the artist/orchestra wanted as long as they | were willing to pay for the extra work. | >I didn't think it was fair for them to expect me to absorb | the cost nor | >did I think it fair to pass it on to the piano owner (the | auditorium). | > | >Once we (I and the auditorium) adopted this policy it became a rare | >thing to tune to any pitch other than the Internationally recognized | >pitch standard of A=440 Hz. | > | >I took the same approach with requests for voicing changes that were | >(in my | >opinion) outside the norm. I would accommodate what I | considered to be | >reasonable requests without comment. Some requests, however, | would have | >required extensive lacquering and/or radical sanding to accommodate. | >When faced with the potential cost of replacing the hammers | after their | >one-night performance the demands for radical voicing changes | >diminished substantially. | > | >"Artists" also tended to take more care in setting up and performing | >their "prepared" piano pieces when they realized--per a signed | >document--that they would be held financially responsible for any | >damage their "preparations" did to the auditorium's pianos. | > | >This approach saved everyone a lot of argument and | misunderstanding. It | >was all fairly simple; we would accommodate any reasonable request | >without discussion but when the request cost the owner | additional money | >(or had the potential for doing so) the financial obligation fell to | >the person or organization making the request. | > | >ddf | >Delwin D Fandrich | >Piano Design & Manufacturing Consultant 620 South Tower Avenue | >Centralia, Washington 98531 USA Phone 360.736.7563 Cell | 360.388.6525 | >Fax 360.736.5239 <mailto:E-maildel at fandrichpiano.com> E-mail 1: | >del at fandrichpiano.com E-mail 2: <mailto:ddfandrich at gmail.com> | >ddfandrich at gmail.com | | > | | | | | > _____ | | >From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org | [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On | >Behalf Of RON MAY, RPT | >Sent: April 29, 2009 5:38 PM | >To: Pianotech | >Subject: [pianotech] CONCERT PITCH 440/442? | | | > | > . . . I thank sombody on this list that made this | suggestion some time ago | >which we now use. | > | >I wrote a form letter from the Symphonic Association Piano | Technician that | >merely states that, "We will be happy to tune the piano to | A442 for you, | >however, This fine piano is maintained at A440 to satisfy | the majority of the | >artists as well as the church. If you wish the piano tuned | to A442 we will be | >happy to do so, however, it will require that the piano be | retuned back to A440 | >immediately after the concert and we will have no choice but | to charge you | >$500.00 for the several tunings it will take to bring it | back to 440.. | > | >Since then we have had no problems---that is until about 2 | weeks ago. We had an | >orchestra,(no pianist) coming in demanding a piano and for | it to be tuned A442. | >When we informed them of our situation they said fine, we | will bring our own | >piano which they did. It was some kind of an electric | keyboard that I would bet | >was maybe 439. | > | >Ron May | >Vero Beach | | |
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