[CAUT] More re. Unison Tuning

[James Ellis]

I see we don't all agree.  That's OK.  I strip mute only the middle of the
piano when I tune, but not the treble, as some people do.  When I tune the
treble, I tune unisons as I go, but I tune octaves by single string to
single string to avoid the situations we talked about earlier.

When I tune all the unisins in the middle of the scale, I pull the strip
mute out, and use a single rubber mute.  I mute the left string and tune
right string to center string.  I move the mute up one unison, which now
mutes right string of the lower unison and left srting of the one above it,
and tune left string of lower unison and right string of upper unison, and
so on.  This minimizes my mute moving, allows me to go faster, and it
allows me to individually tune the side strings to the middle string
without the others sounding.  For me, it reduces the accumulating error I
would otherwise have.  When I'm done, I go back and check then all.  If I
find a unison that is not really clean, I fix it.

The reason I said one can obtain better results by tuning individual
strings to the center strings is that it reduces accumulating error.  In
the event one ends up with a side string with a plus error and the opposite
side string with a minus error, resulting in a slow beat with all strings
open, that can be corrected.  That routine works for me. 

Sincerely, Jim Ellis