flat A

[Susan Kline]

Thanks for the information, Warren

Is it possible you are following the same person every time, when you find
the A that is flatter than the surrounding notes? Is it possible that this
person is only making one pass? That way the A could drift downward as the
notes around it were raised, if it were the first note tuned. My feeling is
that your repeated passes would even out this discrepancy, unless it is
caused by some unknown quirk in the SAT, which I consider unlikely.

I also liked the suggestion from Russell Schmidt that the A is the note we
tend to notice, and others might be just as far out.


>Susan,
>
>I noticed the situation mostly in pianos that were new to me and have
>just started looking for the situation in pianos I've previously tuned
>and I can't tell yet if it's happening or not.  I tuned one yesterday
>that I had done a year-and-a-half ago that had some difference in the
>"A", but I had put in a Damppchaser system and you know how that changes
>things.
>
>I too go through the tuning several times if necessary, particularly
>near breaks where the back does all of it's strange things.  That's the
>only way you'll find out if the pins are set.
>
>Thanks for the input!
>
>Warren
*********************************************************************
history:

>Susan Kline wrote:
>>
>> Warren, were all the tunings made with only one pass? I haven't noticed the
>> effect you're talking about. I'm an aural tuner, and I do several quick
>> passes.  Do you do all your tunings using the same order of operations, or
>> do you vary some? Do you think the "flat A" happens only for SAT tunings?

to answer Warren's post:

>> >Thanks Russell, this gives me some other ways to look at things while
>> >trying to solve this thing.  I've also noticed a slight dip in the "A"
>> >on some of my 'yearly' customers now that I've started thinking about
>> >it.  These were all FAC tunings with a SAT.  Now I'm going to start
>> >checking the "F's" and "C's" also to see if there is some kind of
>> >pattern here.  I'm also going to check to see if the previous tuning
>> >included a substantial pitch raise.
>> >
>> >One thing that has already happened is that I check the pitch of the
>> >strings on both sides of the "A" and use the average to set my offset.
>> >
>> >Warren
Susan Kline
P.O. Box 1651
Philomath, OR 97370
skline@proaxis.com

"Agree with me now: it will save so much time."
			-- Ashleigh Brilliant