Perfect tuning

[Frans Sedee]

As a free-lance tuner I also work for collegues regulary. Working on instruments
that are tuned very often by one person you can come across interesting
differences between one tuner and another, and myself for that matter.
It is usually just a matter of octave stretching. I used to impose my own
"regime" in all circumstances, but I found out that this only causes a lot
of work (often just before a concert) and tuning instability.
And : "The other guy usually only needs twenty minutes"
So nowadays I try to recognise the "other guy's" system and try to find the
drop-outs and correct those. After all, he is my client, and not his client.
On a more abstract level I think you can define a perfect tuning ( given a
certain inharmonicity) after it has been decided which overtones are to be taken
into account, and which not. Not very practical.
We have a collegue in France (if he still lives) that published a book, that I
unfortunately lost and I can't remember his name right now) in which he
advocates pianotuning in pure fifths. He gives a method too.
Of course this can be done perfectly, and the result is still "well-tempered".
I tried it but didn't get halfway, because it was to out-of-tune for what
I'm used to.  About half of the book was filled with letters of
recommandation written by professional musicians. I do remember that
espacially violinists were enthousiastic when accompanied by a piano he
tuned. Eversince I do a bit more
octave-stretching working for them.
Another interesting devellopment I find the re-introduction of meantone
temperament in modern music by Dave d'Arcy, a collegue in New York.
Then, at least some tonalities, are "perfectly" tuned.
Greetings, Frans Sedee