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Standard Tuning Pitch of Orchestrions
By Karl Schroeder

Hi, Robbie,  To end all confusion I attach a picture of a tuning
fork from the 1920s stamped "C 523.3"; this corresponds to A=440 Hz.
The fork then states "Official Pitch of A. F. of M. 1917".  Then,
"Adopted by U. S. Gov't 1920".

Most coin piano and orchestrion builders continued to pitch their
instruments at the older A-435 pitch and many home player piano
manufacturers did as well.  Many piano tuners throughout the 1920s
stubbornly continued to use the older pitch.  In the case of fixed
pitch orchestrion instruments, the need to continue to pitch the
piano at A-435 certainly was obvious.  I myself prefer A-435.

Karl Schröder

 [ The nice thing about standards is there are so many to
 [ chose from!  ;-)  -- Robbie



(Message sent Wed, 10 Apr 2013 05:24:46 +0100 (BST) , from time zone +0100.)

Key Words in Subject:  Orchestrions, Pitch, Standard, Tuning

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