I guess I would have to say better to do 2 passes. I will agree that often, a small raise like that cited, will work out real nice. But I have had pianos where the bass section didn't drop from the overpull, and other somewhat unusual responses. I guess I just don't see the pitch raises being that predictable on all pianos - too much variation. At least that has been my observation. Terry Farrell ----- Original Message ----- From: <A440A@aol.com> To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2003 10:03 AM Subject: close enough>?? > Greetings, > I have been reading the discussions on speed, tuning accuracy, etd vs. > aural, etc.. So, this a.m. I thought I would try a controlled test. The > piano is a Yamaha C3, one year old. It is in a large instrument rehearsal > hall at the university. I had tuned it 11/22/02 to ET at 440. > This morning I checked it and found it sounded reasonably in tune with > itself insofar as unisons and single octaves were concerned. The Double and > Triple octaves were dead sounding and checking against the SAT, it was flat. > The flatness was: > A0 at -3 cents > A2 at -4 > C3 -10 cents > C4 = -8 > C5= -7 > C6= -10 > C7= -12 > C8= -14 > > I decided to do a straight, one-pass, totally machine, damn the > torpedoes, SAT pitch raise. I began on A0 and went to the top of the piano, > changing the pitch correction figures at each A and D as I went. By the time > I reached the 5th octave, the C was -9 cents, due to the pulling done below. > S0, I was using a 2.2 cent overpull at this point and was leaving clean > unisons as I went. The entire process took 54 minutes. > I finished just as an accompanist and two string players walked in, so > asked them to play it and listen. Around here, everybody knows that they can > be honest with me, and they also know that there is no telling what sort of > temperament I might be throwing at them, so there is no fear or loathing > involved in letting ol' Ed know that this or that tuning doesn't work for > them. Their response was: > "It sounds beautiful!" I asked them to check the double and triple octaves. > Their response was, " They are so clean and even!" > As the music, cases, and rosin bags were being opened, I zeroed the > machine and went back to check my results. Every single A was within one > cent of where it was supposed to be, all the C's were too, except a slight > sharpening in the last two octaves,(resulting, I surmise, from there being no > further strings above them to take advantage of the overpull results). > So, this raises the question of always needing two passes. Is a one cent > variation worth the extra time? I believe it is not, in this venue, where the > pitch will change that much from day to day, depending on the lights, > presence of the orchestra, HVAC fluctuations,etc. Had I been in a recording > studio, I would have done a rough pass first, but more for insurance than > anything else. > In so much of the debate over relative values of machines vs. ears, we > overlook the practical considerations. I would like to see a comparison of > results that pits two tuners against one another in a more real world > setting. Something like, two pianos that are 8 cents flat, with maybe a > cleaning crew in the hallway, and with a 1 hour deadline, etc. Oh yea, it > would also be good for these two tuners to have already tuned two or three > pianos in the hours previous to the test, so fatigue factors get to be > introduced, also. > It is one thing to compare tuning procedures in museum or test lab > settings, but in the real world of getting the job done for money, I > wouldn't begin to favor a strictly aural approach. Perhaps on a really poor > scale, the results would be closer, but on a good piano, in good condition, I > submit that the use of a machine allows far better results with far less > stress. > Regards, > Ed Foote RPT > ( At the St. Louis regional conference several years ago, I had to tune the > piano in 65 minutes. It was 20 cents flat, there was a change of temperament > to be done, and the window washers were outside the big plate glass windows > with a large hose squirting on them as I worked. The feedback I got that day > in the temperament class was that the piano sounded really, really good....) > _______________________________________________ > pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
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