Lawrence, This may sound brutal, but I do it all the time. I would set my starting note at A455 and pull the pitch up in one pass. Of course, I stripmute the whole piano and raise all the middle strings, then all the left strings, then all the right strings. Rarely is string breakage a problem. I feel that a piano which is not at A440 is not in tune. Ken Burton SEE YOU AT SEASIDE! "Doctor Piano" Calgary, Alberta On Sun, 10 Mar 1996, Laurence Beach wrote: > Dear Pianotech people: > > Actually, the subject maybe should have been Henry Herbert player piano. > Anyway, I was called to tune one of these the other day. It was about > 110 cents flat. The first thing I did after removing the action and such > was to dab a drop of protech at each bearing point on the V-bar. At > first I was timid and only raised the pitch up to 80 cents flat. > However, I discovered much to my delight, that protech worked so well > that I would raise it to -50 cents flat. I never heard one ping of a > string breaking from its bearing point. Considering I hear this on new > pianos even, when I have to pitch raise them, that was quite remarkable. > > As for the piano itself, which was made in the very early 20th century, > it seems in remarkably good shape, if no work has been done on it for > quite some time. It is very dirty inside, and the action generally > worn. The tuning pins, although not tight like a new piano, were > reasonably tight to hold the pitch. Other than the tuning, the first > thing that is necessary it to replace the hammers. My question is, is it > worth it? Replacing the hammers would go a long way to restoring the > tone, although the strings probably should also be replaced because the > bass strings are still the steel type. I gather that the owners don't > really want to spend too much on the piano. > > I also have a second question. When I pitch raised, no strings broke, > and the piano seemed to respond well. The pitch droped between 20 to 30 > cents during the pitch raise of basically 50 or 60 cents. I felt this > was acceptable, since the drop was quite even. How safe is it to raise > the pitch to A440? Is there any way I can find out the original standard > for the pitch of this piano? Thanks in advance for your input! > > Laurence Beach > Vancouver BC > Canada. > >
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