Overpull

[Duplexdan@AOL.COM]

After so many years tuning all kinds of pianos in various conditions 
including numerous pitch raises of grands, uprights new pianos old pianos and 
factory pianos I have developed my own system as I'm sure we all have with 
experience. But for someone looking for answers in the first 5 to 10 years in 
the field to say one needs experience is almost to admit that there is no 
scientific way to attack the problem. The various comments by our colleagues 
are pretty much on the money as far as I have read so far but there may be a 
few angles that I have missed, so I'd like to hear your reaction to these 
ideas:

Science vs. art. If we were to think of pitch raising as a science all of the 
numbers mentioned going down to cents of accuracy would be appropriate. But 
refining this approach semms to me to need an equation that might be a long 
as the road from here to Chicago. Not being mathematically oriented primarily 
I resort to the "art" of tuning and pitch raises taking into consideration 
certain factors that I put in the pot of my head and try to stir up into a 
"feel" solution. 

These factors are: the length of time the piano has been below pitch. The age 
of the piano. The reasons the piano has dropped. The tightness of the pins. 
And the condition of the action. The last may be the most critical. Why? 
Because if you raise the pitch substantially and attempt to set the string 
tension with severe test blows you may have more work than necessary 
repairing broken action parts. Before I caluculate cents, I always calculate 
dollars; meaning. as some techs have astutely pointed out, you can"t do a 
pitch raise and a fine tuning in one shot.

If the general pitch of the piano is at A 438 or lower, or conversely A 442 
or above, in my experience two passes are required in almost every case. If 
in addition to those conditins you are dealing with a concert situation you 
may have to tune the piano again right before the concert. If it is a home or 
showroom situation I generally recommend a week to two weeks before i do a 
follow up tuning which I have come to consider mandatory in the cases of 
pianos outside those perameters.

In sum that's why i consider certain phases of piano tuning from an artistic 
rather than a scientific point of view. You really have to develop an "x" 
sense of acoustical aim rather than a strict mathematical formula in this 
case. At least that is what I have tried to do, and for the most part have 
succeded. 

The last point that may be useful is my suggestion of severe test blows which 
is as follows: When I have a piano that I am doing a pitch raise on I first 
ascertain if the action can take the "action" . I generally try to go about 
halfway above the pitch that the piano was below it, with the exception of 
instruments that are a semitone or more below. I think you are right that too 
much stretching isn't good for the strings, but you'd be surprised to know 
how much stretch  relatively new strings can take. I tend to think that in 
the case of pianos of five to ten years life the strings might "like" a good 
stretch after the atrophy of lying at a much lower tension than they were 
designed to sustain.

After this initial pitch raise I go from top to bottom with both hands 
striking the keys in octaves at least five times each with as stong a blow as 
I can. My objective is to strike the keys at least as hard as a pianist. This 
severe test blow procedure may be rough on your elbows and fingers but it 
does wonders for evening out the tension through all the points of contact 
the string engages.

Hope this has been helpful.

Dan Franklin
Duplexdan