<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1"> <title></title> </head> <body text="#000000" bgcolor="#ccccff"> Hello Calin, In 1880, Alexander Ellis presented a paper before the Royal Academy of Arts in London.  He had researched the pitches of organs, concerts, pianos etc. across Europe.  It is fascinating how HIGH most of the pitches were in his treatise. In 1854, according to his report, "Pleyel's Pianos" in Paris had a pitch of 446.0 Hz  In 1856, a Paris Pianofortemaker's fork was 446.2 Hz. On a side note, I hope you are not using modern high tension steel wire on such an instrument!  A suitable alternative is Pure Sound stainless wire. Regards, Jurgen Goering <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.pianofortesupply.com">www.pianofortesupply.com</a> Calin Tantareanu wrote: <blockquote type="cite" cite="mid200504281800.j3SI0D802016@bridget.rudoff.com">Does anybody know what pitch was used in Paris (France) in ~1860? I have a Pleyel upright from that time, under restoration, and tuned it 1/2 step low of 440. It sounded awful. But tuned at 440 it is much nicer. I should add that it has also a really short scale, so I suspect they were using a pretty high pitch. Calin Tantareanu ---------------------------------------------------- <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://calintantareanu.tripod.com">http://calintantareanu.tripod.com</a> ---------------------------------------------------- </blockquote> </body> </html>