[pianotech] How long do unisons hold?

[pianolover 88]

Of course pianos go out of tune, but all at once, many months later, not over time ...just like when you mow a lawn, it doesn't just start growing immediately, and slowly! It grows back, all at once, exactly 2 weeks later, under cover of darkness! 

If the tuning is solid, and there are no structural issues, or new strings...then the common reason:

Humidity fluctuation! Humidity fluctuation! Humidity fluctuation! Humidity fluctuation! Humidity fluctuation! Humidity fluctuation!

Terry Peterson

Accurate Piano Service
UniGeezer.com
"Over 50, and not "2" Tired!" 




> From: da88ve at gmail.com
> To: pianotech at ptg.org
> Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2010 11:32:32 -0700
> Subject: Re: [pianotech] How long do unisons hold?
> 
>     No tuning is rock-solid, as much as the most confident of us 
> would like to think they are.  Many recording studios tune once 
> a month.  At many concerts, a tuner comes out during 
> intermission to touch-up unisons.  I just now did a freebie 
> touch-up for a client whose piano I tuned a month ago.  If she 
> just played Debussy all the time, it probably wouldn't have 
> needed it, but she plays rock, gospel, and jazz, and quite 
> forcefully, on a piano that has very hard hammers.  But she 
> still wonders what's wrong with the piano when a few unisons 
> have drifted after a month.
>     I get the impression that the general piano-owning public 
> thinks a tuning should stay perfectly locked-in for about a 
> year.  But they just don't.  Yes, there are those old pianos 
> that stay almost rock-solid for 5 or 10 years, but they're 
> one-in-a-hundred.  As previous PTG brochures on tuning have 
> pointed out, we're lucky pianos stay in tune as long as they do, 
> with their essentially 18th century technology, and their 12 to 
> 20 tons of tension on the plate and each string under 75 - 150 
> lbs. of tension.  Other (non-fixed pitch) instruments are tuned 
> about every time they're played.
>     I've often tuned pianos where, as I'm packing up my tools, 
> the customer tries a few notes, and I can hear a unison or two 
> that has already drifted.  This is usually when a pitch raise 
> has just been carried out, but not always.  I'm afraid stability 
> is an elusive goal, but we try our best.
>     --David Nereson, RPT
> 
> 
> 
 		 	   		  
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