Oops?

[David Love]

On a piano that flat I would probably do the first pitch raise at 20 cents
sharp and start with the first plain wire strings.  I would be careful not
to overstretch the bass strings and would be more conservative with the
overpull probably pulling it only slightly sharp (10 cents).  I would go
through and just pull everything without recalculating.  If the strings were
showing signs of corrosion I would probably only pull to A440, let it drop
and do another raise.  For the second raise, I would use the pitch raise
calulator, starting at A0 recalculating at least at every section break  I
find that it does a good job of calculating the required amount of overpull.
I wouldn't arbitrarily choose to increase the overpull on the treble.
Though it might be flatter, it doesn't always drop to the same degree as the
tenor.  Also, you are closer to the breaking point as you go up the scale.
After that raise you should be able to fine tune.  I would prep the customer
that string breakage on a piano that has not been tuned for that long and
that needs that much of a raise is a definite possibility.  I would make it
clear that replacing strings is not part of the tuning fee and outline the
potential costs.  I prefer to go through the piano as many times as needed
to get the piano where it needs to be.  Suggesting they tune it again in 3-4
months rarely works.  Somebody who has waited that long is not likely to
schedule the needed follow up.  Get it done now.  By the time they call you
again you will probably already have retired.

David Love

----- Original Message -----
From: "Warren Fisher" <fish@communique.net>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: November 04, 2001 1:07 PM
Subject: Oops?


> The other day I was chatting with my customer (big mistake right there),
> while setting up a SAT pitch raise of about 125 cents on a small
> console. Now I usually do a two stage PR with more than 100 cents
> flatness to avoid over-stressing the strings and of course in middle of
> octave 4, I get that lovely pranging sound!
>
> So what do I do now, go on and possibly break more strings or reduce the
> overset?
>
> I chose the latter.  With the SAT at A440, I continued (No more strings
> broke). Another mitigating factor- I normally increase the pitch overset
> above the treble break by 15% of the measured flatness, in this case
> 18-1/2 cents to allow for the lower pitches usually found in the upper
> areas of neglected pianos.
>
> Now I have a piano at pitch to D4, -24 cents at A4 and about -15 in the
> treble.
>
> Being an old fighter jock, I attacked the biggest problem first; the -24
> cents. Starting at D#4, I overset 6 cents and proceeded to the break.
> Next I read the flatness in several areas of the treble and averaged to
> -16cents. I overset 4 cents (I figured I had overset enough on the first
> time through), and went to 88.
>
> What did I have now?  A mess!
> It was on pitch through the wound strings, about G3.  All the wire below
> D#4 was about 3 cents flat. D#4 to the break was 2-3 cents sharp and
> most of the treble was 5 cents or better flat.  Go figure!
>
> Obviously, I don't have a real good mental picture of what was going on
> there. A couple of times in the past, I would put extra overset in
> somewhere in the pitch raise and for some reason not get back into the
> page I was using and would tune a bunch of notes with a zero in the
> right window.  When I went back over them with correct settings the
> notes were always over-sharp on the next time through. You have to
> reduce the overset through the section in error about 10% and then go
> back up to the  original overset.
>
> Does anybody have ideas on this?
>
> Warren
>
>
>
> --
> Warren Fisher RPT
> fish@Communique.net
> 1422 Briarwood Dr.
> Slidell, LA 70458-3102
>
>