Affleck Piano Tuning?(and Yamaha PT100/Verituner)

[Walter216@AOL.COM]

Kevin:

Great post, particularly in light of your stress levels.  I've always tuned 
aurally, yet my SAT is with me every day to help lighten the load.  Like you, 
I'm fed up with the talentless toads who can't even tune unisons without an 
ETD but won't try to learn aural tuning.  An ETD should be a tool for the 
skilled aural tuner, not a crutch for the incompetent.  At least bad tunings 
can be easily repaired, unlike the bad rebuilding jobs we all run across.  
(Another subject altogether, guaranteed to get MY stress levels elevated.)

I know there are supposed to be folks out there who can tune at CTE levels 
with an ETD but can't do an RPT level tuning without, but as a CTE, I haven't 
tested one yet.  The best ETD tunings I've seen in tests barely scraped by at 
the 80% level and it usually took them 2 or more tries to make it.  

My advice to new tuners is: use the ETD to learn to tune aurally.  Pay 
someone for tutoring and set aside time every week for practice and 
experimenting.  Yes, learning to tune aurally is HARD but just about anything 
worth learning requires hard work and perseverence.  

As for your other problems, I sympathize completely.  Don't bother asking the 
libs to pass the ammo, they'll be afraid to touch it.  (Might explode in 
their hands, you know.)  I'll be glad to pass you a box of Corbon +P in 
whatever caliber, though.  1.5-2" groups at 25 yds., reasonable recoil and 
excellent terminal ballistics.  Like a Magnavox, expensive and darn well 
worth it.  

Hope things get better,

Walter Connell
Lancaster, TX (Dallas)