The Verituner, an opinion from a user in Holland

[larudee@pacbell.net]

Antares,

As you may have gathered from my posts, I agree completely with you in terms of
the final result.  Verituner is unsurpassed in this regard.  My problem is with
the amount of time it takes to achieve that result.  I find myself having to do
a second pass much more often with VT than with RCT.  With RCT I do a second
pass only when the piano needs a pitch adjustment of nearly 10 cents or more,
and I charge extra.  I don't feel justified in charging extra for pitch
adjustments smaller that that, when they wouldn't require a second pass with
RCT.  I think I would lose a lot of customers if too many of my routine tunings
included a pitch raise charge.

The other criticism I have is that even the first pass takes somewhat longer
than necessary, in my opinion, because of the rather primitive display.  With
RCT you have only to keep your eye on the spinner the whole time.  It moves
right, left, clockwise, counterclockwise, and blushes, but it's always that
spinner.  With VT you have an inner spinner and an outer spinner and you have to
switch focus, and the inner spinner sometimes disappears and becomes a sharp
symbol or a flat symbol.  Then in coarse mode you have yet another type of
display (even more primitive).  I think its a bit confusing, on a reactive
level, and results in somewhat slower eye-hand coordination.

Of course it's more satisfying to get the VT final result, but not if it's going
to slow me down.  These are problems that can be solved, and when they are, I'll
be in the market again.

Paul Larudee

antares wrote:

> Dear colleagues,
>
> I have not been a subscriber to Pianotech for some time now (I have been
> extremely busy in the last year) and somebody told me about the recent
> Verituner posts on this list.
> I am a Verituner user myself and curious by nature, so I surfed to the
> archive to read the last mails about this subject and, subscribed again.
>
> Maybe it would be correct to tell you that I have used the Verituner for
> almost a year now and that, to this day, I am extremely happy with it.
> >From day one I noticed that un-tunable instruments suddenly began to sound
> like real pianos and that beautiful pianos sounded so incredibly even and
> harmonious that it soon became more than clear to me that only the very best
> aural tuners would be able to get the same result (and certainly not within
> the 45 minutes I need).
> I tell you this because I can simply not understand how anybody with real
> knowledge about this miracle machine, can have anything against it.
> Sure, I read  the complaints about the way it looks, about the weight and
> about the over-pull capacities, but how about the - unsurpassed - final
> result?
>
> I live in Amsterdam, in Holland, and Holland happens to be a country where
> the Verituner has become rather popular in a very short time.
> Some new users, indeed, have made a few remarks (on the Dutch piano forum)
> about their Verituner, and they were basically the same as the ones I read
> in the archives : a little bulky and the way it looks.
> But they all are very happy and very enthusiastic VT-tuners because they are
> aware that this machine is a true revolution in tuning machine-land.
>
> I myself have, for a fairly long time, used a Yamaha PT-100, so I have
> become used to that kind of weight and volume in my tool back.
> The size of the verituner therefor is no real obstacle to me. The way it
> looks? sure.. it definitely could be more sleek and cool looking.
> But we must not forget that the verituner, with its wonderful possibilities,
> is at the same time reasonably new on the market and in its early stages of
> development.
> I am certain that the makers (technicians themselves) are aware of what
> piano tuners/techs want (and they are, because there is a Verituner forum
> where new ideas are being posted continually by VT-users) and, because of
> the highly inspirational atmosphere there, I am sure that we can expect more
> exciting developments in the near future.
>
> At the same time, I am more than content with my fantastic tuning aid and I
> am also aware from experience that most industrial products change and
> develop very fast (depending on the market).
> It is the same with my car ; I could wait till doomsday for the very last
> new development but at the same time I need one right now, so I choose a
> model and (luckily enough) I am happy with it, knowing that the next model
> is always 'more and better'.
>
> Let me just make clear to you that I don't earn one Euro, nor a penny, with
> this e-mail and that I am certainly not against any other really nice tuning
> machine (and there are those, and tastes always vary from person to person).
>
> What is most important to me is the final the result : a perfect electronic
> ear.
> That - is truly remarkable and that earns some respect.
>
> friendly greetings
> from
>
> Antares,
>
> Amsterdam, Holland
>
> "where music is, no harm can be"
>
> visit my website at :  http://www.concertpianoservice.nl/