>I dunno, I'm not so good with words like Professor Ron... maybe he has a >better term that would satisfy everybody. > >Diane Gee, I don't know. This isn't my usual station. The regular guy is out temporarily on a parole violation, but I'm leaning toward "idiopathic" as a generic descriptive term. It's a medical term meaning "of unknown cause or origin". (See, the medical profession can be of some use after all, especially if you need an obscure term to drop in conversation to scare everyone off.) If the forensic examination of an installed tuning can't determine the vector by which this tuning was contracted by the piano, then it would qualify as a tuning of idiopathic origin, and therefor exempt any further random speculation as to whether or not a fork, ears, or a 43 long checked sport jacket was employed as an aid to installation (hair length not being a factor in any case). That being said, the inductive implication is that if the tuning occupying any particular piano is unidentifiable as an aural or machine assisted, or autonomously performed mechanical tuning, then it's a moot point. It just plain old doesn't matter if the tuning installer is the world's best aural tuner, a blithering incompetent with a fifteen minute old tuning machine, or any proportional degree of anything in between (as will certainly be the case). If he/she/they can dependably install a passable tuning then he/she/they is/are piano tuner(s). It technically doesn't matter a whit of a smidgeon of a tad what the method employed happens to be, if the results are acceptable. "First, do no harm" - another little tidbit from our beloved medical profession. Anything better than that is, beyond an apparently painfully agreed upon minimal finished standard, gravy. Consider this fair warning that this next paragraph is going somewhat deeper into the pit than some will care to follow. If you feel that your tender sensibilities are at risk in proceeding beyond this point, please just skip over this clump of text and pick up at the next break. No, not this one, next paragraph please. OK, they're waiting up ahead now, so we can talk. One who tunes pianos is a piano tuner, regardless of how well or badly it's done, just like the plumber who leaves you only a half day's work of your own straightening out his work after he leaves, instead of the 3/4 day's work you paid him 2.5 day's wages to perform. Makes no difference. He's a plumber, just like the guy who does the same kind of work with different tools, or first rate work with the same tool set the first guy used. The performance is graded AFTER the test, not during. If a guy gets paid to tune pianos, and that's his primary source of income then he's a PROFESSIONAL piano tuner - again, no matter how well or badly he does it, what he charges, or what tools he chooses to use. That's the definition, so that's the rule. No amount of puffing up with semantic prestidigitation changes the fact that the "quality" of a tuning is judged solely on whether or not it meets the customers' criteria for usage. Since Richard Breckne likes number grading systems so much, though I don't particularly, I'll make the concession in this case and award him a -4 for hard headed adherence to a logically unsupportable stand in the face of overwhelming rationale to the contrary. Keith gets 10 points, with 7,000 additional bonus points for good behavior and uncommon restraint, to be held in reserve as ammunition for future discussions. Be alert Keith, and don't spend them all at once. Hi there, nice of you to wait. You didn't miss anything important, trust me. In closing, I'd like to offer a couple of seasonal observations. 1: When leaving a nice warm house or car, and stepping out onto an icy porch or driveway, stand on that ice for ten seconds or so to let your shoe soles cool down to ground temperature. It will considerably improve your traction and hopefully keep you out of the bed next to Newton. Think about it. <G> 2: If you see a window decoration that says "LEON", but the letters look funny, you're looking at it from the wrong direction. That's it. Sorry, nothing for the Limbah fans. Ron N
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