What Is A Pitch Raise?

Your instrument’s overall pitch fluctuates with seasonal humidity changes. Contraction and expansion of pivotal wood components adds and releases pressure on the strings, making their pitch move up and down respectively. In Canada especially, cold and dry weather drops pitch flat, while warmer, humid conditions lift it sharp. On top of that, every subsequent year without standard tuning drops a piano’s pitch flatter than the previous year. In response, our Pitch Raise Tuning brings all strings back up to concert pitch so they sound as fresh as a new piano — even if the piano has not been tuned for over 10 years! As such, this service becomes a common necessity to keep heirloom pianos sounding their best.

Is This Just A “Double Tuning”?

Pitch Raising is not the same as tuning your piano twice. Extra time is spent at the beginning of the appointment to adjust string tension up across the board. Doing so allows strings to stabilize one another during the standard piano tuning to follow. In total, this service coupled with a standard tuning takes no more than 2 hours, for which we do not charge a “doubled” fee. The result is a restoration of stability for a neglected piano’s tuning.

Is It Possible For Strings To Break?

The simple answer is, yes, strings can break at any time — during any activity! However, this is very unlikely in newer and well-maintained pianos. String breakage is notoriously caused by corrosion and rust on bearing points. Tension adds strain on these points and when adding even more tension, the corroded string catches and over-stretches. Snap. Understandably, we will replace broken strings at minimal cost. However, string breakage is an unpredictable event and we do not take responsibility for it. It is our mandate to provide professional service and proactively avoid damaging your piano with strict caution while raising the pitch.

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