<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; = charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1476" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Michael Spalding said: "<FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Yup, I'm with you all the way.  I = definitely want to do a full scale evaluation.  As I stated, the only question = I have is, what pitch was the piano originally designed for?  You state = 435.  Reasons?  My limited info indicates manufacturers and musicians = were all over the map at that time.<BR><BR>thanks</FONT><BR></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Michael,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>You are absolutely correct! Even = though, the German pianos were meant to be tuned at a whole lot more than 440cps, in that = period, I choose 435cps, because that is the pitch that the US tuners were, most prevalently using when the piano was new. Hence, the lower pitch, gave = the piano a much mellower sound, which is what was expected of the instrument. = I've found that most German pianos, of that period, had VERY good wire that will = take pitch raises w/o a problem. If you choose to just do a straight 440cps scale evaluation and smooth up the inconsistencies....Fine. I don't think = you'll have any problem(s). My reasoning for using 435cps, is more in the line of = tone. Because the board is stiffer, from age, it tends to have a more strident = projection with the original scale up to 440cps. I'm just speaking from = MY experience. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Best Regards,</DIV></FONT> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Joe Garrett, R.P.T.<BR>Captain, Tool Police<BR>Squares R I</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>