Unclean unisons: a theory

[Frank Weston]

Theory as to why ear tuned unisons can sometimes be better than unisons
perfectly tuned by electronic reference:

If all strings in a unison are perfect, a perfectly tuned unison will
sound best, and electronic reference would probably do the best job.

However, many strings when first struck hold pitch, and then slowly
decay in frequency, or actually increase in frequency immediately after
being struck, and then decrease (or even warble up and down).  If a
unison has one or more of these strings, as the string changes
frequency, in the worst case, it will give false beats, but in the
intermediate case, it will sound less clear and powerful.  When tuned by
ear, the human brain/ear combination take into account slow changes in
the pitch of a string and the best compromise is made.  When tuned to
electronic reference, no such compromise is made.

Thus, with less than perfect strings, the "fuzzy" logic of the human
brain yields better results than the perfect pitch of an electronic
device.  And it does not take much tuning for a person to learn that not
all strings are perfect.

Please do not construe this theory as an attack on electronic tuning.
On the contrary, if I did not have the use of a device that actually
showed me what strings are doing, it would have been difficult for me to
come up with this theory.  I propose that an interesting modification to
the logic of electronic devices would be a switch that would allow some
"fuzzy" logic in the tuning of a unison which has one or more wandering
strings.  Of course, taping the bridge pins, seating the strings on the
bridges, and otherwise cleaning up the terminations might help too.

Frank Weston