Well, since you asked, Dave, I'll give you my side on using the magnetic pick up. When I first bought my SAT last Fall, I did not buy a mag pick up. I felt like the built in mic on the SAT would do the job. And it did on about 99% of the piano's I tuned. (I tune around 8-9 a day, two Grands, 6 or 7 verticals) Then I came to a new Kimball veritcal were the SAT was having a hard time picking up the beats about the middle-upper part of the tenor. So I called Sanderson and had them send me a mag pick up. I went back to the Kimball and found the SAT did a better job than the mag pick up did. All I had to do was to move the SAT closer to the strings and it heard everything fine. I have a good friend in Portland Oregon who sorta sold me on a mag, saying, if you put the mag closer to the strings, it does a better job, even if you have to move the mag several times during a tuning. I have still found out the SAT hears everything just as good if you move it closer to the strings that are not sounding loud enough. Personally, I'm glad I have a mag pick up, but sometimes I think I'd be glader if I had the $75 back! (Grin) So it's a matter of preference. If you want to spend the money and realize it works fine in some piano's and in others, so-so, then buy one. Other- wise, I'd just move the SAT closer to the string and realize it's doing as good a job as a mag pick up does, in many cases. The bottomline is, if you're floating in dough, buy one. If you're hurting financially, save your money for something else....like a computer! (Grin) Gordo
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC