[pianotech] Was high and outside now silent pitch lowering

[Ron Nossaman]

On 10/31/2012 10:20 AM, Terry Farrell wrote:
>> I've never attempted a blind overpull,
>
> CHICKEN!!!!!!!!  Boy, not me though. I've done it a couple of times -
> VERY fast and VERY easy.
>
> And then I spent a half-hour pulling in strings that ended up 50 cents
> off this way and that, etc., etc.  My attempts were disastrous. But hey,
> I tried it!  I just don't see how it would be possible to do a blind
> pitch raise and get everything within a couple cents - or even all
> within an average of a couple cents.  But then, there are lots of things
> I find difficult to do - very often just because I am not skilled at it.
> I dunno - maybe with practice. But even with practice, it just doesn't
> seem likely to come close enough. I'd really like to watch someone do a
> "good enough" 60-cent pitch raise blindly and have the piano ready for a
> good one-pass tuning (i.e. have the piano within a few cents of target
> for tuning pass). It would be very interesting.

Terry, Paul,
This is exactly why I've never tried a silent pitch raise. Muscle memory 
is a wonderful thing, but both the overpull percentage and the hammer 
movement required to get it change throughout the piano. I can't 
recalibrate on the fly without something to calibrate to, and chose not 
to prove to myself what I had learned to be obvious in other attempts at 
freebie shortcuts. I do what I consider an above average aural pitch 
raise, based on what I've listened to others do. It's not a five minute 
thing, by far, but it ends up pretty close most times. Kimball products 
being the least predictable. I have no doubt any ETD out there produces 
better and more dependably uniform pitch raises, but then what's the 
point of a silent pitch raise for an ETD user when he'll probably be 
making two more passes getting it under control? For me, it doesn't 
compute, though I see no harm from anyone using the technique if they 
can control it adequately to not hugely over pull what shouldn't be and 
break something. Yes, sometimes tuners DO break strings whether they 
admit it or not.

And speaking of Kimball products, how do you ETD users out there find 
your box does 50¢ and above pitch raises on these creatures? Aurally, 
it's a real crapshoot.
Ron N