Question About Pitch Raises

[KeyKat88 at aol.com]

Greetinhgs,

            I'd say the average amounts of flattness over the spanse of the 
paino would roughly determine the amout that the piano is flat. After my 
WHOPPING 34 months in this business, what I do is "feel" the piano out. I first mute 
all but one string of F33.  Then I check individually, all 3 of A37's(on 
reeeely cheap pianos,  F33 or A37 may only have 2 strings) against F33 to 
determine how much it beats, by using the M3rd to A440 fork test.  If the beating is 
outrageously fast and I cant grasp the number of beats per second, then I pull 
up the one string of F33 till I can hear a determinate amount of beating, then 
I re-do the M3rd to A440 fork comparison. Then I check aurally by 3rd-10th 
tests, individually, all 3 strings of A49, and all three of A61as well. I also 
check the A's below A37, by 6 to 3 teats and by  M3rd/10th. This gives me an 
idea of how flat the piano pans out all over cross most of its span.

       If a piano is 2-4 beats flat and it is at the end of the heating 
season like April, (I live in the Northeast where the heat is on at least 5 months 
of the year) then no pitch raise is needed; I just tune. Any lower, the 
customer is consulted and asked if they want a pitch raise or not. If the piano is 
2-4 beats sharp and it is July thru Sept (humid summers here in the 
Appalachians), . I just tune in that case as well. 

        If the piano is lower than A440 in the summer, I inform the customer 
that the piano is flat but the best time to pitch raise it and tune it is 
during the heating season. I dont like to pitch raise in the summer (humid) 
months, because what if it gets more humid?...no, no I dont chance that.

       You may want to be cautious on old, old uprights. In the U.S.A.,  A440 
became standard pitch in 1939.    An older turn of the century piano is 
usually never meant to be up to A440. I was told somewhere along the line, by a 
senior tuner,  they are to be tuned to about A435. That is where I put them if 
their age can even withstand that! Old age can cause lifting of bridges, loose 
tuning pins and string rust, which are other causes why pianos sometimes cannot 
be pulled up to 440.  Hope this helps. 

Julia Gottshall
Reading. PA 

     
In a message dated 4/1/2006 12:01:45 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
rfinley at rcn.com writes:
Please could you explain to me how you determine if a pitch raise is 
necessary on a piano and by how much? The question I have is that the strings on the 
piano might be flat by different amounts, so is the amount of pitch raise 
determined by the flattest note or the average of the amounts of flatness of 
several notes, spread over the piano?

With an ETD such as the SAT III you can determine how many cents flat a 
string is by looking at the display and then use it to perform the pitch raise. How 
do you determine this aurally and do the pitch raise if you don't use an ETD? 
Thank you for your help. 
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