<HTML>In a message dated 10/4/01 11:31:47 AM Central Daylight Time, mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Just what the heck is chipping? Rough tuning while plucking? Is there something inherently different about bringing a freshly strung piano up to pitch and in rough tune than doing a several-step pitch-raise? What is the difference between chipping a piano up to pitch and raising the pitch of an old upright that is 5 whole steps below standard pitch???? Terry Farrell </BLOCKQUOTE> Chipping is the process of rough tuning the piano the first time right after it has been strung. The advantage of chipping is that it can be done without the dampers installed. Yes, you can tune a piano without the dampers, but it would be very difficult to do. Although I stretch the strings before chipping, I also chip the piano a half step high. My method of chipping is as follows. I find what note is the first in the treble section. I then find an in tune piano, and play a note half a step above it. In other words if the first note in the treble is a b2, I play a c3 on an in tune piano. I then chip tune a major scale on the left string. I will continue to tune the major scale all the way up to the top note. I then go back and chip the next string, c#3, and start a major scale from that note. Obviously, when I get to the third note of the C# scale, it is already in tune from the c scale I just did. This is sort of a check for me. I will continue this all the way up. After all the left strings have been tuned, I will tune the right string of each note, starting at c3. I then tune one string of the bass section, to even out the tension on the plate. That is followed by tuning the middle string of the treble, and I end up tuning the left over bass strings of the bichords. Under normal circumstances, by the time I install the action, (after the dampers have been hung), which is usually about a day or two later, the piano will have dropped about 150 - 175 cents, to about 50 - 75 cents below "pitch." Most of that drop I attribute to down bearing pressure on the board. The rest on the strings stretching. So I do a "Normal" pitch raise. (off setting the SAT 25 cents high), followed immediately by second tuning 10 cents high. Then over the next 2 weeks, the piano will get tuned 4 more times, with enough time in between tunings to let the strings settle some more.  But each time I will tune the piano 5 cents high. Just before the piano goes out the door, I will give it one more tuning at pitch, and tune the piano 2 weeks later in the customers home. Most of those tunings will require a 10 cent or less pitch raise. With this procedure, I have found that most pianos will stabilize after a year, which includes 4 tunings. Willem </HTML>