close enough>??

[Jonathan Finger]

Hi there all,

If I'm moving pitch more than 8-10 cents, then I will do a pitch raise,
and tune uisons as I go.  I do this with both a strip, and a rubber
mute. I tune with the pocket RCT, so typically I am able to tune
chromatically up from A0.  Like I said, with a pitch raise I pull sharp,
usually a bit sharper in the treble, and less in the bass.  It has been
my experience that the treble will drop more than the standard 25%, and
that the bass will drop less than this amount.  

If I must do a pitch raise, I try to do it as quickly as possible,
knowing that I will be redoing a good portion of it.  This usually takes
a 1/2 hour (or so).  Surprisingly, many times on the 2nd time through,
I'm only moving maybe 30%.  This means that the second time through,
even though it's a "fine tuning" doesn't take all that long, and the
entire process is usually done within an hour and a half.  

Any similar experiences out there?

I will say that tuning unisons as you go seems to create a bit of
stability, though I don't always do it.

Somewhat off topic (or is it) ...  I remember Virgil Smith doing a study
here once where he showed that tuning unisons caused the pitch level of
the note to drop.  I believe it was something like 1-2 cents.  (anyone
know what I'm talking about, or have I gone mad?)


Jonathan Finger RPT.
Boulder Chapter, PTG

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
Behalf Of John M. Formsma
Sent: Thursday, January 23, 2003 9:38 PM
To: Pianotech
Subject: RE: close enough>??

This matches my experience, too. Lately, though, I've been doing a lot
of
1-pass tunings when the piano is within 5-8 cents flat. What I do is
completely tune the middle section. After this, I'll tune the treble
using a
strip, tuning each section after the middle strings are all tuned. Since
the
treble is flat, I'll tune octaves sharp, trying to offset what I "feel"
will
be the amount they will drop. When those treble unisons are tuned,
usually
things fall about the right amount. There will be a few notes off,
requiring
retuning (mostly shimming). Usually, things turn out OK. I think this
gives
the customer a pretty good deal: no extra charge for a pitch raise, and
it
sounds OK. It really doesn't take that much longer to tune that way--you
just keep moving and realize that the customer is not likely to be as
critical as a tuner would. After all, they could have it tuned more
often
than every 3 years. :-)

John Formsma



> You have proved in the past that you are a brave man!  I think your
> procedures and analysis is correct here.  The brave part is declaring
> on this list that the piano doesn't have to be within 0.002 cents
> before you start to get good results.  Personally, I think one of the
> big differences is that you tune the unisons as you go.  I have
> always believed that strip muting the whole piano requires that it be
> much closer than if you do the unisons as you go.  I don't know all
> of the science involved in this phenomenon, and I don't have time to
> explain my conjecture, but I'm convinced that stripping the whole
> piano requires starting with a more in-tune piano.
>
> dave

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