SAT III

[A440A@AOL.COM]

John wrote Vince lot of questions, among which.
 > Does the auto-note stepping
>work great? 

      It works, but cannot be left unattended without a lot of discipline.  I
find that I often, in playing some test intervals, send the note off into the
ether, and if not careful, I will resume tuning by some obscure partial from a
note far away from where I was.  If you use tests along with the lights, you
have to keep up with where you are sending the machine!! 

>Have you tried any of the built-in historical temperaments? 

   Yes, and there were several on my machine that needed correction to agree
with Jorgensen.  I contacted Inventronics and they let me know that they had
fixed that.  Besides, it is so easy to drop a temperament "template" into
these machines that I changed the pre-loads simply to order my tunings in a
different priority.  It is really as simple as can be imagined. 
     I now have my machine with four of the temperament slots, ( out of 14)
set to  all +4 and +8 cents, as well as -2 and -4.  This treats the "not quite
to 440" pitch  as a target that you can hit with the pitch raise function on
i.e, pitch raising a piano to 438 each winter, and lowering it 442 in the
summer, with a lot of accuracy.  
>Is FAC measured the same way or is there a provision for more than three note
same way

 > How well does the pitch raise function work? 
    Very well, it also allows for the auto correction to be set at 33% or 25%
to suit different pitch raise styles. 

>I'm trying to justify
>the $1600+ price tag to replace my SAT II machine that still works fine.

Get yourself on the list, now.  In the wait, you will have ample opportunity
to continue the research.  It is a business tool, and your old one is worth
over half the cost of the new.  
Regards,  
Ed Foote