Craig Brougher wrote [020328 MMDigest]:

> I chip up my strings just once after I have strung the entire piano
> and put them all "in the cracks."  That means about 20 cents sharp.
> Then I tune it down (in general) to A=440Hz +5 cents ... The old idea
> that "strings need to stretch first", and that it takes them a long
> time to get set before they will stabilize, is pure nonsense.

I must disagree and state that I have seen the result of over-stretching
newly installed strings on the more recent quickly-built Kimballs and
other inexpensive pianos.  When you try to tune them, they are rife
with false beats on half or more strings.  I do not know how they
screwed up new strings that badly since they surely did not twist them.
They had to have stretched them too far.  This can be done by rolling,
(which is why I do not own a roller) or by tuning too high.  It is not
stretching that settles them down, but keeping them at their correct
pitch.  I spread several tunings out over a few weeks, but it might
work to do it within a week.  Has anyone tried that?  I was told the
Steinway factory used to do it in six days.

> ... once the elastic constant is exceeded, the string begins to
> extrude, and at that point it will snap.

English translation: "Extrude" means that it stretches an oblong spot
in the normally round string.

No, it will not snap -- yet.  It will snap, however, in about 50 years.
Such a stretched string will be among the first to break.  If you ever
wondered why certain strings break in an old piano and others are fine
for years longer, this is the reason.  When it is stretched, immediately,
it will have two new pitches among its normal harmonics.  Those harmonics
will equate to the distance from each end of the string to the oblong
spot in the now stretched string.  Since these pitches are not in the
normal set of partials, they will be out of tune with one or more of
them.  This out-of-tune-ness is called false beats and is why sometimes
one string by itself will beat as if it were out of tune with something
when no other string is playing.

Being the conservative that I am, I only pull the first tuning up
slightly higher than 440 Hz but I fear doing it to a point that will
stretch any string beyond its elastic limit.  Since no one can know how
much is too much, unless you know the exact scaling of each string, its
length, its wire gauge, etc., I will prefer to tune six times and be
safe from adding false beats to any newly strung piano.  I also know
that in fifty years or so, all my strings will still be in one piece.

I do know that the factories always tune their pianos several times.
I have heard the number six as the standard.  I do not know what
today's standard is but it is not that many.  I can tell you that new
pianos do not come out of the crate in tune in most cases.  Some brands
do.  Kawai usually is in perfect tune.  I would like to know how many
tunings they do.  If a factory could tune a new piano only twice
without the rollers or false beats, I would expect them to be doing
that.  Steinways in the 80's were never in bearable tune out of the
truck.

> Too many tuners tune like a store tuner does it.  No piano is going
> to stay in tune for long that way.

How does a store tuner do it?  I don't do anything different for a
floor tuning from what I do for customers.  I have customers who swear
their pianos never stayed in tune until after I tuned them.

> But I really would like to see someone else string a piano sometime
> and see what they are doing (or omitting) that requires ten more
> tunings.

I know of no maker whose pianos require ten tunings.  Most pianos sound
best after their sixth tuning.  Many of mine only need four or five,
but the sixth is done anyway in the home.  My normal tuning schedule is

1. Chip to pitch, plucked with hammer shank with one end flattened on
two sides.

2. Coils are pulled up and tuning is done.  Strings are also tapped
down on hitch pins and bridge pins first.

3. Coils are pushed down and third tuning done.

4. Tuning is done as action is regulated and coils are checked once
again.

Tunings 5 and 6 are often just icing on the cake, but it is important
to keep the piano at A=440.

Sorry, Craig, I find it hard to believe that your method gives a
perfectly concert tuned piano with absolutely no false beats.  I, too
have been doing this for over thirty years.  If I could pull strings up
too high without stretching them, and without having to run a computer
program to determine how much too high to pull them, I might try it.
At this time, however, I plan to stick to my own piano mythology as
I have practiced it so far.

I would like to hear what Jon Page thinks about this tuning thing.

D.L. Bullock   St. Louis
www.thepianoworld.com