> Yes and it takes so little time to go through the bass a second ot third time. > Joe Goss Hello Joe, et al, You are comparing apples and oranges here. Breaking % is determined by the speaking length of the string and less by pitch. Bass strings tend to be in the 30 to 40% and treble from 60-70% on well scaled pianos. There are exceptions which does require consideration when tuning. Changing speaking length of a treble note to a whole tone longer raises the breaking % by about 210% which is most often in the safe range unless dealing with a super high tension scale. Ever wonder why a 7th octave string hasn't broken even though it is a whole tone sharp (from previous tuner, of course). The reason is that if the B% is 65% at pitch then a whole tone sharp is about 77%. Not acceptable long term but within safe limits short term (ten years or so). Since bass strings have a much lower B% raising them 100 cents is save. Not wise for other reasons but save, so there is no real reason to concern yourself about breakage from this source. I do not raise pitch aurally but use my SAT as follows. Get FAC numbers and modify as I wish. Set SAT to A1 and stop lights and initiate pitch correction Tune from A0 to end of bass with this one correction Wound middle strings are tuned flatter than bass correction. Go up a M3 or 4th above first steel wire and get correction Return to first steel string and tune 8 to 10 notes. Get new compensation factor. Tune a M3 to next comp factor until end of middle section. New comp factor every M5 to the last 5th and diminish comp factor to 0 at C8 Retune piano either with SAT or aurally as time, energy, inclination and quality of piano my dictate. I use 1 (one) felt wedge mute for tuning grands doing unisons as I go. When tuning uprights I use a strip mute in the middle section, felt wedge in the bass and a Paps mute in the treble and tune unisons as I go by pulling the strip out as I go up. End result is a piano that only needs a tweaking tuning on a quality piano that had been well tuned by the last tuner. Pianos that ae way off may require three tunings to get then to pitch and in tune. Aurally pitch raising or lowering a piano is a guessing game. If you tune the same brand and model of piano two or three times a week you get a sense of how to tune them once so they are on pitch and ready for a fine tuning. The 25% and/or 30% compensation factor remains exactly the same so the skill comes in in knowing how to use this information to your advantage. Tune either A3 or C4 to the fork and evaluate C#4 or E4 for beat rate. M3s are expanded by about 12 cents so an comp factor can be calculated from the beat rate. If the piano is was way off the tune the appropriate M3 upper note to a proper beat rate then pull up the A or C to a pure M3. Walk up to pitch doing this in 12 cent stages and you will have the approximate cents off pitch. Reverse this procedure for a downward correction. Tune a temperament and tune the bass octaves a little sharp (assuming a pitch raise) and the treble octaves more sharp. By the time you have tune a full octave (actually about 6 notes) the previous octave has dropped already so you need to continue to tune treble (or bass) octaves sharp all the way to the ends. How much sharpness is a judgment call based upon experience. The end result should be a piano ready for a tweaky fine tuning. The SAT (or similar tool) far exceeds human accuracy in pitch changes, up or down. That is why they are such good tools to have in your case. If you ever work in a university or school situation where there is no climate control you will be eternally grateful for such devices. My such experience showed winter humidity of 15% and summer at 85%. Pitch lowers in September and pitch raises in January. Up and down. Up and down. Up and down. SOmetimes as much as 100 cents from one extreme to the other. Fun Fun FUN!!
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