IMHO, floating the pitch is always something to be considered. However, it should absolutely be addressed with the piano owner/pianist/whomever-is-willing-to-take-responsibility. They need to make the decision how important A440 (or whatever) is to them. Clearly, someone playing in their home alone, will likely benefit from floating the pitch. Clearly, a piano in any level of performance setting that is played with other instruments, choir, etc. is going to benefit from a pitch adjustment, if needed. But someone needs to decide if it is worth paying for! For me, in my locale, the pitch thing is not a big issue. We just don't have the seasonal fluctuations in RH that other areas have. When I float the pitch on an instrument that I tune on a regular basis (at least once per year), I'm staying between A442 and A439. If the piano is flatter than that, I know it needs a pitch raise, because I know it will not rise significantly in pitch at any other season of the year. It must be tough rastling with pianos in Duluth! Terry Farrell > Julia, > Floating pitch is not IMHO dishonest but again, IMHO short > sighted. I'm now dealing with a University about an hour from me which > could really benefit from floating the pitch as the humidity fluctuation is > great, apparently. I, personally, can never get past the what if scenario. > You know what I mean. What if someone is going to play along with a fixed > pitch instrument and they are off. What if another instrumentalist tried to > tune to the freshly tuned piano and can't. Those kinds of things. > best, > Greg Newell
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