New toy (RCT)

[Mike and Jane Spalding]

Hi Hazen,

You're giving me a guilt complex for encouraging you to buy the pocket RCT!!  I like 5 for mid-size american grands, like S&S M or L.  Smaller grands, and Asian grands, seem to sound better with less stretch.  Of course, this is a matter of personal taste, and I am a former string player weaned on pure 5ths.  

What's the size and age of the Knabe?  Do you remember what the calculated T, B, and D beat rates were?  They should display in the tuning record header at the bottom of the CyberEar window.

Jumpy spinner usually means false strings.  I assume you tried moving the computer around to make sure the mike wasn't in a dead spot?  One of my clients has an early 20th century Knabe, rather tired (the piano, not me), 5'6" or so.  The last time I tuned it I was using RCT on a Windows laptop, with external mike.  I had a lot of the same problems that you described, and moving the mike around didn't help.  Try some other pianos, I think you'll find this Knabe was the exception, not the rule.

Since Chicago, I've tuned 5 pianos with Pocket RCT.  Here they are, with OTS selections:
S&S M, OTS 5
Becker vertical, OTS 4
Baldwin spinet, OTS 2
Another Baldwin spinet, OTS 2 (octaves 0 and 6 mostly aural due to erratic spinner)
Kawai 500 (5'8" grand), OTS 4

hope this helps,

Mike Spalding, RPT


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <HazenBannister@cs.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 03, 2002 3:44 PM
Subject: New toy (RCT)


> Hi,
>  I tuned a Knabe grand today,and started out with my RCT on handheld 
> computer(First time user).I took the measurements,and choose setting 5 
> ,instead of easy.Someone told me they usually use 4 or 5 for grands.I don't 
> know if I did something wrong,but I didn't like the way it sounded,so I got 
> my accutuner back out and tuned it.Also,the spinner seemed very 
> inconsistant,going one way and the other,giving false readings.What do most 
> of you guys,gals, set the spinner sensitivity to.Also maybe some RCT 101 
> suggestions.
> Thanks,
> Hazen Bannister
>