pitch lowering

[Warren Fisher]

Yes I will Keith,

Providing we are both talking about a pitch raise or lowering in excess
of ten cents and mean completely strip muting the entire piano and not
just the temperament.

I use a single mute, adjust each string in order from 1 to 88 and can do
almost half of the piano in the time it takes me to completely strip
mute it.  Maybe the rest of you are "muting magicians", but it takes me
5 to 10 minutes to get that mute in right and I am always pulling out
too many loops and having to use a rubber mute anyway or rumaging around
for my loop inserter to stick it back in.  A lot of times when I am in a
hurry, the loop gets pushed down too far and it presses on the center
string, damping it also.  

Also in the doubleton area of the bass, you tune the left string on one
unison and the right on the next.  Once you pull that strip, it is
really easy to get your lever on the wrong pin.  When you tune strings
in order, you know that the second tuned string is always the right
one.  If something slips down there after you finish the piano, you know
that the left string was tuned to your pitch reference, be it SAT or
octave. 
It only takes 15 to 20 minutes to pitch adjust the whole piano with a
single mute, why should I add another 5 to 10 minutes playing with a
strip mute.  Besides, I used a strip for the temperament only, for over
15 years.  I'm a whole lot more skilled at shoving rubber than felt!

Don't get me wrong, I like a full strip mute for tuning, especially on
big grands with tight tuning pins, but for pitch adjustments, I don't
see that it is worth it.

With a SAT by using using one-half of the offset in the bass, the full
offset in the center and adding 15% of the original measured flatness at
the treble break in uprights and F5 in grands, you can pitch raise 50 to
100 cents and have a result that looks a lot like a piano just needing a
yearly tuning.

Well Keith, there are my thoughts, let's hear yours!

Warren



Keith McGavern wrote:
> 
> >  ...He recommended
> >one-quarter offset when raising strings as you go, and one third for
> >strip-muters. Personally, I think strip-muting for a pitch adjustment is
> >a waste of time...
> 
> Would you elaborate why you think strip-muting for a pitch adjustment is a
> waste of time, Warren?
> 
> Keith A. McGavern
> kam544@ionet.net
> Registered Piano Technician
> Oklahoma Chapter 731
> Piano Technicians Guild
> USA

-- 
Warren D. Fisher
fish@communique.net
Registered Piano Technician
Piano Technicians Guild
New Orleans Chapter 701