[pianotech] Was high and outside now silent pitch lowering

[John Formsma]

The method is fairly simple. It's basically the exact same thing I do with
a tuning--just faster. Little to no checks. I set a very quick temperament.
Then tune as quickly as possible. The only difference between a pitch raise
and a tuning is the amount of time spent setting the pins. In a pitch
raise, I'm not interested in setting pins. The goal is to get the tension
of the piano close enough to be fine tuned.  While I'm raising pitch, I
will mentally calculate some kind of overpull. Can't really describe
this--it's something gained by experience with many pianos, and how they
react to a pitch raise. Usually, things are fairly close after the first
pitch raise. With a pitch raise of 100 cents or more, I know I'll be doing
at least two pitch raise passes.

Most of the time, I use strip mutes for tuning, but always for a pitch
raise pass. Once I have tuned the middle string of every note, I usually
start tuning unisons in the treble section, then the middle, then the
bass. I arrange the strip mutes so that I can bring in unisons by tuning in
whole steps. I go up in whole steps, then back down in whole steps. This
lets you work on the same "row" of tuning pins.

What really helped me get speed was learning to listen quickly, going up
and down by whole steps, and forgetting about high precision. You also have
to learn to look ahead to the next pin. Just think less and work faster and
faster. Your mind is an incredibly machine, and able to do more than you
think.

FWIW, back when I was using the Verituner, I did pitch raises with two
mutes. That took about 22-25 minutes. More time because of handling the
mutes.

-- 
John Formsma, RPT
Blue Mountain, MS



On Wed, Oct 31, 2012 at 11:11 AM, Terry Farrell <mfarrel2 at tampabay.rr.com>wrote:

> What is your pitch raise method John? I know many techs say they do a
> pitch raise in 20 minutes or so. I usually take about 40 to 45 minutes. I
> would very much like to speed up my technique.
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20121031/7a043844/attachment.htm>