Pitch Raise Explained

A Pitch Raise is a kind of 'pre-tuning' that will bring the pitch of a piano up further than it needs to be, in order to allow it to fall back within the correct range for a subsequent fine tune.

If a piano is more than 5 cents off - the distance from one piano key to the next is "100 cents" - the string's "memory" will cause it to move too far from its desired pitch within 30 minutes. This will result in a piano sounding "out of tune" again.

To minimize the number of times one must tune the piano, a measured over pull pre-tuning will get it to fall back closer to the desired pitch the first time. This is called a Pitch Raise. If a piano is more than 20 cents off before this Pitch Raise tune, it will also need a tuning in about 6 months because the strings are stretching and finding their equilibrium again.

If a piano is more than 50 cents off, this second tuning will most likely need to be done sooner than 6 months. After that second tuning, the piano's tune should be stable for its usual schedule of tuning.

Both a Pitch Raise can be done on a piano and then a fine tune in the same service call. I typically schedule a 2-hour time slot for a combined Pitch Raise and Tune.

On some very old pianos with brittle strings, an "over pull" will be more than it can handle without a string breaking. On these, we recommend a special series of tunings, which we can discuss once we've evaluated your piano's condition.

Back