Oh Ed, go tuna fish.:) He is right. Knowing the environment and using good judgment are the best tools we carry with us. Heavy stuff but useful. Newton A440A@AOL.COM wrote: > > Newton writes: > > >Why bother! Tell them different pitches cost you more time > >therefore more cost to them and charge it. If it gets them where > >it hurts they change their tune quickly enough. > > Hmm, not to advocate no devil or anything, now tripping over this > soapbox....... > > As far as 441 goes, that is just 4 little bitty cents away from 440. > In a stage environment, with people, horns, and lights all getting heated up > during a performance, it isn't uncommon for there to be a two or three cent > change over the course of the evening. Pianos are often cooler before the > show, so 441 to start might be what these people have found effective in > minimizing problems. With a machine that compensates for the difference, 4 > cents is easy to do in one careful pass. (Any more than 5 and I go through > twice). It is one beauty of the ETD. > > On the other side of machina, I got this soap right here.............., > (IMHO), a tuning machine is of little value when the piano has "sagged" > unevenly throughout its scale during a hard first half under the lights and > inspiration of, say, Liszt and Brahms and the tuner has perhaps 10 minutes to > deal with it. > It is at these times that the judgement and ear of the tuner must make > the maximum repair to the harmony in a triage sort of way. Sometimes unisons > absorb all available time and the octaves are left alone, perhaps in some > "angelic", choral stretch. I have heard beautiful music out of a piano > that "expanded" between tuning and performance. (think an extra 20 cents over > three octaves!) > When there is time to do more than unisons, the piano's worst octaves > will have to be thrown together, but there are some very harsh thirds waiting > for the tuner that haphardly makes octaves out of things. ( don't ask me how > I know) > > This is a point that the beginning tuner should grasp; that the machine > will get you up and tuning very quickly, but if you neglect learning how to > tune aurally, there will be a place you can't go, i.e. the performance > platform. If you do find yourself in this situation, and have only a machine > to give you information, the odds are very good that you will do damage to > your reputation. > There is no substitute for being able to aurally judge all the normal > interval widths, and being able to arrange them in one or more consistant, > acceptable temperaments. > Regards > Ed Foote RPT >
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