pitch raise

[Newton Hunt]

Hi LesB,

> Just looking for some pracitcal wisdom.

Boy, have you come the wrong place.

I have only seen one or two pianos, in 35 years that was as much as
200 cents flat.  If the piano is more than 20 or 30 years old I don't
try to bring it up to pitch on the first pass.  Some pianos I tell the
customer I don't know how it will respond so I leave it 50 to 100
cents flat so that I can get a feel for the piano and the strings.

Pianos younger than 20 years I yank them up, using a SAT, and let it
calculate the over pull.

This is a judgment call and experience is the best teacher.  If in
doubt raise it in steps.

As to speed, this is a function of security.  If I feel secure that I
have a wide margin of safety I can do a pitch raise in 20 minutes
using the SAT.  Being able to do this is practice and not striving to
be perfect.  Perfect unisons cost too much time in a pitch raise.  

Actually three 20 minutes passes are superior to 1 45 minute pass
because as you rev up to speed you will get faster and faster until
the point you can tune tight unisons VERY quickly.

If I feel as if I am getting into a string breakage situation I will
slow down to help prevent popping strings.  Doesn't always work but I
can hope.

If I feel the piano will indeed come up to pitch with little hazard
potential then I will instruct the owner to have it pulled up the next
time and I will leave a note to myself or the next tuner to that
effect.

Get out there and hustle your bustle.

		Newton