Afternoon with Jim Colemam. pt 2

[Richard Moody]

Jim it seems is always experimenting with temperaments.  In three visits I
encountered four temperaments...make that 5 counting ET. A problem aural
tuners face is, who checks up on them?  The need for evaluation by another
tuner is critical to the tuner who pursues the Aural Traditon.
(Oooooohmmm) ; )  And with the constant develepoment of electronic tuning
devices thoughts cross the mind like "How do I stack up with this one?"
"Is it really that sensitive?" What does "accurate to 1/10 of a cent sound
like?" "Can it deal with obnoxious strings in the bass?" 
	Well I got lucky, Jim Coleman is the best of both tuners. Having a SAT
III is the criteria for the qualification of  best  ETD users. (I'm gonna
get blasted by the RCT crowd so I will say right now, "put on a show like
Jim does") Demonstrating the how of sounding partials and why of
indicating inharmonicity aurally, cinched the "best of" in the aural
catagory. Showing it on the SAT III was even more graphic esp the  strings
on the same bass unison with different inharmonicity readings.  At one
point Jim asked about a particular unison in the bass. (this is on his
Steinway L ) and it sounded OK to me. I should have said I couldn't really
tell untill I tried it with the tuning hammer but I went with a quick
chromatic comparison and pronounced it good.  Boy was I surprised when he
cleaned it up in one 5 second pass. I would have liked to have spent 30
minutes on bass unisons but Jim had other objectives in mind. 
	He started showing me the FAC readings and how the machine has to be set
to the piano. Then he called up his stored settings and they matched. Then
he called up the Coleman IV (or was it VI temperament) checked the the
temp octave, muted the piano from C2 to C7 and tuned it to the SAT all in
less than 15 minutes.  "The rest of it is yours" he said. "I'll be doing
email"   "Say 'hello' to the list for me" I replied as I started to finish
the rest of  the bass.  "Hmm it checks out pretty good, he must have tuned
this yesterday."  Then  the bass unisons, ...what an exercise the L is. 
No make that a challange.  I was only getting pretty close and getting
frustrated by thinking I should finish in 20 minutes. I still had the last
treble octave to tune.  Phew...it checked out, he must have tuned this
also in the last couple of days. I did the tenor and treble unisons,
saving the temperament unisons til last. Finally going on 45 minutes I was
on the last temp. unisons.  Jim came in and like magic the last 4 unisons
were in tune as I pulled the strip, well I tweeked one.  He sat down and
started playing. I hadn't had time to do final checks,  but it sound good.
 Then it started sounding great. After 2 minutes,  "Wow this sounds GREAT"
I exclaimed forgetting myself. "Well it ought to, two experts just tuned
this Steinway" he replied as he was playing.   "Its a damn good sounding
Steinway then" I fluttered still floored by being called an expert by a
(make that 'the') master of experts. He talked about restringing it and
bridge work, I thought since it was original it might be a candidate for
the definitive L. But that didn't go anywhere. Then I told him I owed for
the time he spent with me, and he replied "Well you tuned my piano" which
was (and still is) about the most praising remark I could ever expect.  It
is true for me tuning those unisons on that L was like wrestling an angel,
and I don't know about other L's as I can remember only one.  But the SAT
in Jim hands made tuning the 5 or 6 octaves a cakewalk.  If the SAT can
tune unisons that is to be demonstrated on the next visit.  But that's
what the Old Pro's do best, provide plenty of challanges for the eager up
and comming.  And Jim seems eager to challange. 

Richard Moody