Pitch Raising

[Joseph Alkana]

At 10:14 AM 6/7/96 -0600, you wrote:
>    I'm curious how you all do pitch raises.
>
>    I've always been taught that the pitch can be brought up, and the piano
>    tuned, all in one sitting - that's what I do.  Assuming that the piano
>    is not more than about 100c flat (most all neglected pianos are never
>    flatter than this, unless it's a birdcage or some such PSO) I bring the
>    pitch up in 2 passes or less.  I use the Accu-Tuner pitch raise
>    function (what a wonderful tool).  The condition of the piano and the
>    amount of flatness determines what approach I take and how many passes
>    I will do to restore it back to A440.  After the pitch raise(s) I tune
>    it.  All this is done within the course of about 2 - 2 1/2 hours, max.
>
>John,

Your description of pitch raising parallels mine very much. I also have
mixed results with pianos being  "right on" to those needing another pitch
raise and starting all over again. It will be very interesting to see what
you experts out there attribute this to.
I am venturing a guess that, although there are certainly widely varying
conditions in which we find our pianos, the biggest reason for inconsistent
results   per your scenario is simply the construction of the piano itself,
varying sizes, and varying resistance of different soundboards to change
shape with the tensioning of the wires. The unpredctable deflection of the
board can be seen, so to speak,  by watching the lights spin as you pull in
the outside wires during a pitch raise. To me, there is a big difference
between pianos as to how much drop occurs, and,  in which section. The Accu
Tuner has, I believe, parameters of offset varying over the range of the
keyboard in the pitch raising mode. Certainly this is just a ballpark
setting, but  for my money, the pitch raising program is absolutely the
fastest way to get into this " ballpark".
I have been told that the board changes very rapidly and then stabilizes
right away, counteracting the new tension applied with the higher pitch
setting. I'm not so sure about that.  Anybody care to take up the thread?
In any event, the unpredictable results certainly make  your advice to the
customer  de rigueur in all cases.

Joseph Alkana RPT
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