Lovely birdcage - what to do?

[pianotune05@comcast.net]

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Hi Terry,
I was thinking of what you said earlier about leaving a piano flat.  I just returned from my eye doctor who own an old upright.  I'm not certain of the brandd, but she claims that it's from the 1800s. I won't dispute her of course because I haven't seen the piano, but she told me that the guy, a seasons pro like most of you guys, "tuned the piano to itself."  I asked her why did he leave it flat?  She siad she didn't know.  She asked about strings etc.  She said that it's flat because her obo when played with it shows that the piano is off.  Are there cases to leave a piano flat, or did this guy tune the piano to a different a fork?  I've heard that old pianos are tuned to a lower A.  
Marshall
ps. I never tune a4 tof3.  I like f2 because I can hear the beats better.  

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: "Geoff Sykes" <thetuner@ivories52.com> 

> The techs I refer to shall remain anonymous for my protection. And they are 
> definitely NOT "tooner's." Just techs with a different opinion and different 
> experiences than you. And that's OK. I've learned from them and now I've 
> learned from you. Whats wonderful about this is that now I get to take 
> several different viewpoints and make an "educated" opinion of what to do 
> next. Thanks to all. 
> 
> The customer definitely does not want to sell her piano. I was just curious. 
> She just wants to be able to play it again. I'm glad that I now have lots of 
> encouraging information to share with her about how to proceed with making 
> this wonderful piano whole again. 
> 
> -- Geoff Sykes 
> -- Assoc. Los Angeles 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf 
> Of Farrell 
> Sent: Monday, January 09, 2006 4:48 AM 
> To: Pianotech 
> Subject: Re: Lovely birdcage - what to do? 
> 
> 
> Who the heck are these "techs" (or rather, "tooners") that suggest to leave 
> the pitch where it is. I run across so many pianos that are a semi tone flat 
> 
> and the owner is shocked when I suggest that we raise to standard pitch 
> because all the other tooners said it could not be done. 
> 
> Pitch raise the darn thing to A440 and be done with it. You might want to 
> yank a few treble and bass strings up there first just to be sure, but I 
> pitch raise 100 year old uprights to standard pitch all the time. Haven't 
> had one explode on me yet. If this were one of those scantily built 
> 150-year-old English minimum-plate birdcages, I think there might be some 
> justification for concern (I'd likely warn the customer that the piano might 
> 
> fold up in half), but I'd still be willing to try it if the owner wanted to 
> try to get it up to standard pitch. However, this is a monster heavily built 
> 
> German piano from the 20th Century. IMHO if they want it at A440 (and that 
> would be my recommendation to the owner), put it there for them. 
> 
> And everything looks original to me also. REAL CLEAN - you bet, but all 
> original. Very pretty piano. 
> 
> What's it worth? Its value is the case and the amazing fact that there 
> really is a piano within. Someone will be willing to pay something for that. 
> 
> Hard to say for sure what one could get for it - because the buyer will be 
> that person that takes one look at it and falls in love with it - but I 
> would guess that the owner could get somewhere between $1K and $2K - maybe 
> more if the right person were to see it. 
> 
> Terry Farrell 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> > You think this piano could be brought up to 440, perhaps in stages, 
> > without 
> > any problems? I was so afraid to do a pitch raise on this thing because of 
> > what other local techs have advised that I never even thought that perhaps 
> > the added tension would improve the pin tightness. Worth a try.> 
> > -- Geoff Sykes 
> > -- Assoc. Los Angeles 
> 
> 
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> 
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