?/Pitch Raise

[Farrell]

When to do a pitch raise and how many passes one will do will always be a
grey area I think. I do use an AccuTuner as a tool while tuning. I will
charge extra for a pitch raise (about 50% of regular tuning fee) if the
piano is more than 10 cents flat for most people. If it is between 10 and 50
cents flat, I will often only do two passes because the AccuTuner will help
me get it within about 2 cents everywhere - usually (I often find a
half-dozen center strings that I don't move at all after pitch raising -
once in a while I will even find all three strings of a note right where I
want them after a pitch raise of up to 50 cents!). Some pianos don't work
out that well and may require more passes. If a client is an advanced
player, we may talk about pitch raises when pitch is 5 cents off.

So commonly I will come to a piano (or some facsimile thereof) that is 25
cents flat in bass, 50 cents flat in tenor, and 75 cents flat in treble (you
know - those hi-quality three section types - like, a, can you say Winter).
I start raising pitch in the bass and by the time I get to the upper treble
I am faced with raising the pitch more than 100 cents. I explain to the
customer that the hi treble is where the greatest chance of string breakage
is and that we should probably do one-and-one-half pitch raises (for - you
guessed it - a total of 75% of regular tuning fee) to be safe. That will let
me go through the hi treble several times, bringing the pitch up slowly and
minimizing overpull.

When making the appointment, I ask them how long since last tune. When they
say more than one year, I tell them about pitch raising, than pianos pitch
lowers over the years and that I see some pianos that require more than one
pitch raise - not many, but some (my record is 400 cents flat). (Even if
they say its only been 8 months since the last tune, I will mention "Well,
if your piano was tuned to standard pitch only 8 months ago, and tuned
regularly prior to that, then it is unlikely that we will need to consider a
PITCH RAISE" - I make sure even in this case they are aware that a piano
below pitch may need a pitch raise.) When I get to the house, I check the
pitch across the keyboard - usually one or two notes per octave - and tell
the client right then and there what I recommend doing, and how much it will
cost.

So far, (although I have only tuned just less than 1,000 pianos) I have
never had a complaint. I learned one thing by the post below though. I
usually discuss recommended tuning intervals with a client after I am
finished tuning. It is then that I mention that the tuning (if having done a
pitch raise) will likely not last as long because of all the instability
related to the pitch raise. I've never had a problem with that, but I can
see the potential for someone to not be happy with that. I think that I will
make a point to mention the potential tuning instability thing PRIOR to
pitch raising next time - just so that the client is always fully informed
prior to commencing work.

Terry Farrell
Piano Tuning & Service
Tampa, Florida
mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Leslie W Bartlett" <lesbart1@juno.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2000 11:15 PM
Subject: ?


> Not being a machine tuner, I don't really know how to convince someone
> that a pitch raise is necessary.  Also, some people say they can do a
> pitch raise, a second pass, and be done with it. Others say, NO- it takes
> three tunings, sometimes, more.  I'm confused..............
> les b
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