[pianotech] Was high and outside now silent pitch lowering

[Tom Driscoll]

List,
    This thread has prompted me to bring up a pitch lowering method I've been fooling around with the past few years.(especially when under  time constraints )
    Case in point last week :   Steinway L from the 50's in a high school chorus room here in Massachusetts.(no climate control)
   With the last tuning in April the piano was @ pitch.The high humidity of our New England summer drives this thing to as much as 30 -40 cents 
sharp from the tenor break on up. Bass maybe 5-10 cents sharp.
   Now this is not a concert situation but getting the thing down to 440 with reasonable stability is the goal. I'll be back in a few months to retune .
Using my accu-tuner I pulled down the middle string of all the C's to around  - 8 c flat or so and use muscle memory to feel the pin movement with amount  of  "tick " required
in each section. 
   Then without playing the notes I have one hand on the tuning lever head and one on the ball end of the Driscoll CF Tuning Lever (sorry ) and move really fast from pin to pin trying to replicate the pin movement from the samples
The exact order probably doesn't matter but from the break on up I lower the middle string then the right string from the top down then the left string from the top down.
The whole operation takes about  5-7 minutes. 
   There are certainly some strings that are way off but the thing is reasonably chromatic and around pitch. After a  quick pull down on the bass 
 I then strip mute the entire piano and speed tune the middle strings with the ETD.  Then tune the right string to the center from the top removing the strip as I go then left string 
to the other two from the top down  (A spin on the 1970's Coleman-Defebaugh P.R. method) then another quick pass in the bass .
  The whole process takes 20 - 30 minutes tops. 
I then tune as per usual technique and I seem to have fewer strings creeping  sharp given the time spent on the pitch lowering.
 I think a version of this was mentioned in the journal way back when.
    I only do this a few times a year so without much science behind me I'm thinking that the double pass in such a short time creates better stability .

Thoughts ?
 Tom Driscoll
 
 
   


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