This Needs A Definitive Settlement was RE: 12 cents

[Farrell]

IMHO - from a Florida tech where we don't have huge seasonal RH changes, a critical piece to realize here is that most good pianists, where a good tuning and tuning stability are potentially going to be noticed, usually tune their pianos at least once a year and therefore do not need pitch raises - and therefore they get nice stable tunings. The folks that just bought that 1968 Story & Clark console that was last tuned in 1983 and is 80 cents flat isn't going to have a hemorrhage if a few notes drift here and there over time after doing a big pitch raise and a tuning in one day. Conclusion: in most cases, any size pitch raise followed up with tuning on the same day is just fine for most folks.

Let's say a good pianist lives in Minnesota where it is hot and humid in summer and dry and cold in winter. S/he will likely have the piano tuned at least twice during the year. If the piano is regularly experiencing a seasonal change in pitch and they have good ears (sensitive to a piano going out of tune), Don's approach may well be a good thing for such a client. But then, isn't that what Dampp-Chaser humidity control systems are for? If you have the serious pianist - why don't they just have a proper DC system installed - won't that be cheaper and better in the long run? If they did, then we would be back to why make a second appointment after a pitch raise?

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Thomas Cole" <tcole@cruzio.com>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, June 30, 2003 3:27 PM
Subject: Re: This Needs A Definitive Settlement was RE: 12 cents


> I'm not aware of any science other than what Dr. Sanderson has done, but 
> I remember hearing about a demonstration of string settling that was 
> performed at Tuners Supply, Sunnyvale, CA some years back (by one of the 
> early California settlers ;-).
> 
> An old upright was pitch raised to 440, after which the back of the 
> soundboard was pounded vigorously with a rubber mallet, along the line 
> of the long bridge, and it was later found that the tuning had slipped 
> significantly.
> 
> I'm not suggesting this as a method of doing single-visit pitch raises 
> as it probably wouldn't go over well with most owners - this was only a 
> demonstration, after all, and it tends to verify what Ron N. posted 
> about friction across the bridge.
> 
> Another thought is that if a tuner were to delay the second tuning for a 
> couple of weeks, it might not help matters much of the piano were not 
> played during that interval. If the pitch raise is not challenged by 
> pounding or significant weather changes, I would doubt that a majority 
> of the strings are going to ooze through the bridge pins on their own. 
> So it may be a judgment call whether it's better to come back for the 
> fine tuning.
> 
> An interesting experiment, which might even work in the field, would be 
> to apply some kind of vibration to the soundboard after a pitch raise. 
> You could warn the customer about the unusual noise it would produce, 
> and it wouldn't look like you were trying to destroy the instrument.
> 
> Tom Cole
> 
> Alan wrote:
> 
> >Don wrote: "...if you pitch correct a piano ... and then tune it ... you
> >may find that you wish you had waited to do the fine tuning. Piano
> >frames shift. Sometimes this shift is very dramatic at the bass break or
> >other areas."
> >
> >I may be wrong (always a distinct possibility) but didn't Dr. Sanderson
> >and others test this whole business and determine that all changes to
> >the piano caused by changing string tensions are immediate?
> >
> >I'd have to go back and look, but I'm pretty certain that Randy Potter
> >has cited this information and stated, in effect, that the time-honored
> >belief that pianos needed to "settle" following a pitch correction was
> >not correct.
> >
> >As this issue has a definite impact on the way we conduct business, I'd
> >like to see a definitive answer here, not just opinions or anecdotal
> >experiences.
> >
> >Anything, anyone?
> >
> >Alan Barnard
> >Salem, MO
> >
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