Also…What Even Is It?!?!
All you wanted was your piano tuned…why is your technician suggesting a Pitch Raise? Why are there multiple options available? Maybe you aren’t looking for fancy bells and whistles – you just want the piano to sound good when someone sits down to play. Can’t we just keep this simple?
And yes, we totally can. But, we still have to quote the two options. Because even WE, as the piano technicians, don’t know whether or not your instrument needs the Pitch Raise or if it can just go through the Fine Tuning process, until we’re able to assess the condition of the piano, in person…so, we have to quote both.
A Pitch Raise is…
At its most basic, a pitch raise is a pre-stretch of the wires before they can be fine tuned, and (*now, here’s the key point*) actually HOLD THEIR TUNE. If a piano has had neglected maintenance, hasn’t been tuned in a couple of years (the time can vary per instrument), has been kept in humidity, has been moved – then your piano will most likely require a pitch raise.
What happens during the pitch raise –
The technician will go through all 280 strings corresponding to the 88 piano keys (*obligatory – I know some pianos vary slightly on string count…for the piano nerds out there ) and tighten the strings to resonate HIGHER than 440 Hz (the standard pitch). This can take upwards of an hour’s worth of time. By the time the technician is finished with the pitch raise, the initial strings that were stretched have ‘relaxed’. And should be much closer to the correct pitch and ready to be “tweaked” through the fine tuning process.
Pianos are tricky!!
There are 3 piano strings per MOST of the keys on your piano. For all of your mid-range and upper-range keys, this is the case. The lower range is split…some keys have 2-strings and then, at the very bottom, only 1-string per key. On the keys with multiple strings being played at the same time – all strings have to be tuned to the exact same note (duh), or the sound will be off.
Oh, but it gets better. Because 1 piano wire (string) – let’s say C4 (middle C) – when it is installed, we take enough wire FOR TWO STRINGS, feed it into the tuning pin, down through the body of the piano and it wraps around a hitch pin AND COMES BACK UP to become the first (out of 3) strings for your C#4 key. That’s right, the same wire is used for two different keys. So, on one side of the hitch pin, the wire will be tightened juuuuust enough to sound like middle C, and on the other side of the pin, that exact same wire has to be tightened even more to sound like the half step higher C#. Complicated, yeah? Yeah…I know. That’s the way all your 3-string keys are installed.
This is why the technician could recommend a pitch raise – it’s not just an extra/optional service. It doesn’t even matter if your piano isn’t “super out of tune”. It only matters if it will hold its tune. Because if it doesn’t, and the technician does one-pass over each string for a fine tuning…there’s a good chance that by the time they’re even finished, the first strings are already back out of tune. Thus…the “pre-tuning wire stretch” or, Pitch Raise, is needed to ensure the longevity of your piano’s tune job.
Your Piano Needs Regular Maintenance
Of course, a Pitch Raise, and other costly services, can be avoided by regular maintenance. And we recommend x2 fine tunings per year. TX Pianos has a discounted maintenance contract from 1 – 3 years (the discount goes deeper the longer the service contract you agree to) that offers the 2 fine tunings per year and gives your discounts on other services, free house calls for diagnosing issues, free instrument cleaning with your tuning appointment, and more. This is to give you an incentive to keep your piano working its very BEST!
OK, does this make sense? How are you feeling about this? What other questions do you have about this service? Leave your questions in the comment section – I promise to get to them.
Thanks a ton for reading through this info! I’m really thankful you are here visiting our site. I hope you find everything you are looking for. And, if you would like to connect with me directly on this or any other topic – just reach out and CALL ME or even TEXT ME. I would love to hear from you.
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OK gang, I wish you a wonderful week. Go create great music!
Until next time…
~ Cheers everyone ~