Pitch Raisins and WD40 pit spray

[Larry Fisher]

While living in Wyoming, I often times was a good 8 hour drive from home and
wasn't going to be back in the area any time soon.  I had to find a way to
tune the piano that was VERY flat and leave it sounding fairly nice,
relatively up to pitch and somewhat stable all in one trip.  Add to that,
the fact that they treat their horses better than their children, and damn
sure don't tune their piano on a regular basis.  I developed a pitch raise,
tuning the piano by ear, no temperment strip, no wedges, just my tuning
lever and hitting the keys.  Starting with the tuning fork note, I pull each
string up roughly to where it belongs.  Then I go octaves to the bass, and
tune a really rough sounding 12 notes,   A0 to A1.  I then go in half steps
up the scale, using every interval I can to keep on track.  My tendency is
to pull too sharp.  As I go up, I try to improve on the temperment.  I don't
spend any time being very accurate, just ballpark.  This takes about 10 to
15 minutes.  I then immediately fine tune.  The pitch raise is about 1/3 the
cost of a fine tuning.  Retune is suggested in 2-4 months.

For those pianos that haven't dropped that far but are good condidates for a
moderate pitch raise, I tune the center section using my mute strip just
like I usually do for a fine tuning.  I then tune a few notes either side of
the breaks and tune the muted strings in the center section, removing the
mute felt as I go.  This causes the piano to drop in pitch slightly.  I then
start all over and retune the center section with the mute felt in and
continue to tune the piano as I usually do.  The "pre-tuning" of the center
section seems to add stability to the end product.

Regarding the usage of WD40  (Double You Dee Forte)  I always tell people
that I wouldn't put that stuff on anything I care about.  It's intended
purpose is for Water Displacement.  Years ago I tried using it under each
arm just before I'd go out on a really special kinda date.

Kinky Boy

                           Larry Fisher RPT, Metro Portland, Oregon's
                  Factory Preferred Installer for MSR/PianoDisc Products
                       phone 360-256-2999 or email larryf@pacifier.com
                            http://pacifier.com/~larryf/homepage.html
(revised 5/96)
                         Beau Dahnker pianos work best under water