Piano tuning has been established as a specialty occupation for over 130 years. Now, more than any other time in our history, rapid and basic changes in other fields are having massive influences on piano tuning.
In the last decades we have seen the superfast tuner, the precision approach to pitch raising, inordinately accurate tunings, the advent of inhumanly accurate electronic tuning aids, and a better approach to scaling pianos -just to mention a few.
In the next years, we will be modifying many of our approaches to tuning, rebuilding, and resealing. We will see an ever-increasing demand for accuracy by ourselves, of each other, and by the buying/owning public. Competition will become stiffer - especially for those who do not keep abreast of what is happening and who do not incorporate the new and superior methods.
It is the philosophy and intent of this blog to present the more suitable, the improved, the new, or even the novel way that is in keeping with good craftsmanship and work habits. It is the further intent of this blog that such methods mentioned are in agreement with the best practices of piano-tuning.
PRESTRESSlNG APPROACH TO PITCH LOWERING
We might tend to assume the aural art/science that we practice has not developed much in recent years, but one has to admit that the art of aural tuning is still developing.
In keeping with that thought, let me now outline the procedure I have developed to rapidly “prestress” the scale prior to fine tuning when lowering pitch. Let’s change the wording of the familiar old shoe, “You cannot fine tune an out-of-tune piano,” to read, “You cannot fine tune an out- of-balance piano scale.” Since a fine tuning is also a delicate balancing of the scale’s tension, any rapid method of achieving a close approximation of that balance prior to the fine-tuning sequence would be of great benefit.
Suppose a particular piano is 8 cents sharp (i.e., A442), and it must be tuned to A440 for a concert. The iron plate and the soundboard crown would not be offended, if we lower the pitch of every other note 16 cents (twice the required amount) to pre- stress the scale prior to tuning every note. Carrying this logic a step further...
Read more at:
https://www.professionalpianotunerlondon.co.uk/post/prestressing-approach-to-pitch-lowering
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