SAT "Ammunition"

[Christopher D. Purdy]

>List,
>
>   I've decided to seriously try and get my *boss* to let me buy an SAT.
>What I need is as much ammunition as possible as to ways that it would
>benefit the university/School of Music, as well as ways it would help me
>to do my job better/quicker/easier.

Avery,

I bought a SAT several years ago with my own money.  At that time the
school of music here at Ohio University couldn't even give me a budget for
parts.  Things are much better now and I am trying to convince them to
upgrade me to a cyber-tooner.  Anyway, the SAT allows me to tune very fast
when needed.  Getting into classrooms and faculty studios sometimes takes a
court order and a hand gun.  If I have to I can be in and out in a very
short time and leave a tuning thats not too hard on the ears.  Our building
was built in the late sixties when the word "climate control" was coined
and the results here are anything but.  We have constant humidity and temp.
fluctuations of the extreme variety.  With the SAT it is a snap to measure
just how much the pitch has wandered and calculate exactly where I want to
put it.  Meaning, in the summer when pianos go up to twenty cents sharp,
and A440 isn't critical, I can take a quick average and tune the piano
high.  Six months later when the piano, even after having left it sharp,
falls to twenty or thirty below, pitch raising is quick and painless.  (In
the fall when we get a cold snap and the heat cranks up you can stand in a
hall and almost hear the soundboards crack) Needless to say when that
happens I have 119 pianos go out of tune over night and a bunch of surly
musicians on my hands.  (Is there any other kind?)

I have all of my frequent tunings stored in memory.  Recital halls and
auditoriums are also hard to get time reserved in and the SAT helps me here
again.  I have tuned right thru sound checks and warm ups without pulling
out too much hair.  Harpsichord tuning is a breeze.  The heat from stage
lights make our harpsichords drop in pitch faster than a cat falls off the
sixth floor balcony.  (Yes, they land on their feet) Depending on how long
the instrument has to sit on the stage before they perform the token
baroque number, I will estimate (guess) how much it will fall and tune it
high to take up the slack.

I hope this helps.

Chris Purdy

-Christopher D. Purdy R.P.T.   School of Music  Ohio University  Athens OH

-purdy@oak.cats.ohiou.edu   (614) 593-1656    fax# (614) 593-1429