SAT "Ammunition"

[Nelson and Tracy Denton]

At 05:55 PM 1/6/98 -0600, you wrote:
>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. Here are a few things I can think of:


Hi.  At the risk of making a fool of myself here (I'm going to assume that
an "SAT"  refers to a  new model of strobe tuner.)
I would heartily agree that an electronic tuner of any kind makes a great
deal of sense. 

As a pipe organ builder I have to tune organs at all different pitchs and
temperments (a420 + - 60%) depending on the time of year and temperature.
For 20+ years I have been using a Peterson model 320  audio tuner to set
the tuning ranks. ( On Pipe organs pitch is dependent on temperature as
much as humidity is on pianos - actually they act more more like
Harpsichords they never stay in any kind of tune).   This poor old thing
has been droppped more times than I can remember and has been kicking
around in my trunk every day for years in all kinds of weather. It is still
in perfect working order.

In pipe organ work an Audio tuner is much more versatile  than a Strobe
tuner as the person tuning must look at the pipes while they are tuning.
Attempting  to look at a strobe and tuning organ pipes while hanging by
one's teeth in an organ chamber is not an easy thing to do.

In the limited piano work that I have done I have found the tuner to be
invaluable.  As a suggestion to all those who would like to purchase such a
device, I can only suggest that if you are buying something to use  every
day. Always buy the best machine that you can afford. 

You will never regret the money spent.  

My only regret is that my machine won't wear out and thus I can't justify
the need to buy a new fancy one with all the bells dials temperments and
whistles and a nice strobe so I can hear those upper notes and harmonics
that are getting harder to hear every year. 

If your boss won't buy you one ( and even the most expensive Peterson model
[http://www.peterson.com] is  far less than an ordinary grand piano) buy
one for yourself.  In most countries you can write off the cost as a
business deduction. (especially if you do free lance work outside of your
full time job.) 

There are many different machines out there on the market from very cheap
ones for tuning  guitars to expensive benchtop lab models with frequency
generators,  digital readouts and fancy scales etc. .  

The best argument you could make is to tell your boss that you required
several thousand tuning forks to give you an exact  pitch for every note.
You still have to do the tuning on your own. The tuner just makes things a
lot easier. 

That's all a tuner is  - a fancy tuning fork. 

As a recent newbie to this list I don't know if tuners have been discussed
to death or not.  If not could  those who have one to talk  about their
preferences?
Nelson E. Denton
R. A. Denton and Son
Pipe Organ Builders
Hamilton Ontario Canada

http://www.freeyellow.com/members/radentonson