[pianotech] high and outside

[Ron Nossaman]

This morning, I tuned (at) a Whitney console. The lady said the last 
tuner had tuned it twice a couple of years ago. I assumed it had needed 
a pitch raise. Inside, the card indicated a February 2010 date, and RH 
reading of 34%. I stripped it up and found the center about 30¢ sharp! I 
couldn't see anything good coming of me trying to explain that I needed 
to do a pitch lowering on a piano that had been pitch raised 2-1/2 years 
ago, so I just pressed on.

As I went over the piano, I found the bass (all of it) slightly flat, 
the center 30¢ sharp, F-5 to F-6 almost on pitch, suddenly going to well 
over a half semitone sharp from there on up. Bizarre! There is no way 
this piano was anywhere near being in an acceptable state of tune when 
the last tuner left it. The uniformity of the aberrations indicated that 
what was done was intentional, but I saw no sense at all to the pattern.

Even being all wild strings in the top half, which is characteristic of 
the breed, it sounded a whole lot better when I left it. Better than 
she's ever heard it, in fact. If she calls next year as I suggested, 
we'll both win.

The kind of work that's being done out there scares me.
Ron N