Practical pitch changing

[Brian Trout]

Hi List,

I had the 'privilege' to tune 9 pianos this week at a local college.  Most
of them were quite sharp, usually in the 1/4step (+) range.

After tuning the first and second ones, a few things started to become a
little more apparent.  1) The bass sections seemed to be the most likely to
stay where I put them.  2) The lower tenor sections seemed to be the most
likely to be fartherest sharp and also the least likely to stay where I put
them.   3) Oddly enough, the treble section seemed to be fairly stable as
well.  The section between the low tenor and about E5 tended to be a
graduation between the two.

So, in a situation like this, where I really didn't have time to do as much
tuning as I'd have liked, what to do??

Here's what I did.

I very quickly tuned through the center strings of the midsection, and very,
very quickly through the bass, more or less to get an idea of how far I had
to move those tuning pins to drop the pitch.  Then, without listening at
all, I took each of the remaining pins in the section, and very quickly gave
each pin a move in similar size and direction as to what I had done the
center strings.

>From that point onward, I tuned as I would any other piano, from start to
finish.

The first one I did this on, I wasn't sure how it would turn out.  But as I
progressed through the last half dozen or so, it became very comfortable,
and it was surprising to me to realize how close I was coming to the correct
pitch on those pins I was just 'bumping by feel' ahead of time.  And
although the tunings were not what I would have liked them to have been,
(anything less than concert level bothers me), they were quite good all
things considered.

I just wondered if anyone else uses or has used a similar method.?

FWIW...

Brian Trout
Quarryville, PA
btrout@desupernet.net