etd for inharmonicity

[Richard Moody]

----- Original Message -----
From: Jason Kanter <jkanter@rollingball.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Cc: Jason Kanter <jkanter@rollingball.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 06, 2002 4:44 PM
Subject: etd for inharmonicity


| . i apprenticed to
| Sheldon Smith in 1970, passed the craftsman exam in 1971

| ... a secondary question; from my single use of tunelab, i would predict
| that the machine encourages you to tune chromatically right through a
| section and not to 'stop and smell the intervals' as a good aural tuner
is
| always doing. after all if you simply tune to the machine, chromatically,
| what you end up with is a pointillist set of sound dots and you may not
be
| setting strings properly nor listening to the _musical_ sound of the
piano.
| am i right/ and if so, how do you counter this tendency to tune
| chromatically/ [forgive my computer's errant shift key]
|
| thanks
|
|  jason kanter

Tune aurally---after all what do you really want the machine for?  To save
10 minutes on a pitch raise?   I agree about setting the strings.  I feel
comfortable doing that aurally.  That takes time and I don't see how
machines can save time in setting the strings.  But how could I as an aural
tuner?
    I had the honor of substitute tuning behind Sheldon at his request in
the late 80's.    Just the regular touchups on pianos he tuned once or
twice a week.  Very solid tunings.  Much more time spent in aural checks
than actual tuning.  I wondered how an ETD was a "tool" in this situation
because you would have to set it up, have it look at every note, then tune
whatever it said, and then go back and do the aural checks, which was where
I was starting to begin with.
   The machines have seemed "chromatic" as you say and I have never gotten
the same sense of setting pins as aural in the few times I have tried out
machines.   They may be a little faster in setting temperament but I didn't
feel secure in setting the pins.  Or if I felt I set them the same with the
machine as I did aurally, I lost time.  Perhaps with practice I could have
gotten better, but I was more comfortable on the aural side and felt the
practice would be better spent there.
    I assumed Sheldon was an aural tuner but I never saw him tuning.  I met
him twice at his shop briefly.  Once was to coach me on tying a bass string
in a C7 for a concert at Greek Theater.  Lucky me, he was in his shop that
Sat afternoon.  btw, the knot held---good teacher.     =-=ric