"Reverse Well"?

[Billbrpt]

In a message dated 98-03-15 15:15:10 EST, you write:

<< Not wishing to start another knock-down drag-out fight, but  unless there
is something I am missing here, either the tuners in Wisconsin are very old-
fashioned and not too well trained, or Bill Bremmer has a very active
imagination. 
 Susan Kline >>

Again Susan, you read far more into what I say than I ever imagined.  I may
well have misread Richard M. too.  I simply mean that if you put more emphasis
on one kind of interval than another, you are likely to produce an unequal
temperament.  A WT can range anywhere from near equal to very unequal.  So can
a Reverse-Well (RW).  

Therefore, if so much emphasis is put on the 5ths and the 3rds & 6ths become
secondary, it is easy to make some of the 5ths either tempered too little,
virtually pure or even inside out.  All descriptions of WT's and Modified
Meantones (MMT).  If these too pure or inside out 5ths happen to fall in line
with the rules for a WT, then this temperament will still sound just fine. If
they fall in opposition to it, which from my observation happens amazingly
often, you will have the unfortunate phenomonen known as RW.  

While it is entirely possible for people to tune an ET using only 4ths & 5ths,
in reality it often does not work out that way.  I've known some tuners who
always believed that they tuned ET who actually tuned a Meantone (MT),
complete with "wolf".  I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever from what you
have said, Susan, that you tune anything but a fine ET.  However, from what
some others have said, It makes me wonder what they really come up with.  It
seems ironic that so many have a problem with the very idea of anything but
total equality in the temperament but so many also dismiss whatever the
results of any of their errors may be.

RW is a completely backwards temperament.  It is as wrong to temperament as
narrow octaves are to octaves and beats are to what should be beatless
unisons.  No one can claim to tune a perfect tuning every time if even ever.
But what we should be aware of are tolerences and the effect that the
inaccuracy has on the overall sound of the piano.  I would favor slightly wide
octaves over narrow ones, for example.  I would make a second pass over the
unisons if they were too noticeably inaccurate.  I would never let my C major
3rd beat faster than the BE or DbF 3rd's which are consecutive to it.  The
same goes for my FA and GB 3rds.  If I were trying to tune an ET, and couldn't
get it entirely equal, I wouldn't allow the results of my inherent errors to
be a RW.  I'd rather make it sound like a very mild Victorian (VT) or Quasi-
Equal (QE) like the Marpurgs.