close enough>??

[A440A@aol.com]

 Richard writes 
<<  I dont really see how this directly relates to the discussion at
hand. Unless you are saying that 1 cent is close enough for every situation. 
If
you are saying that I would have to disagree. <<

    Bringing in the word "every" skews the discussion.  That is why I didn't 
say that. 
    What I am saying is that situations where 1 cent has any practical 
consideration are so few and far between as to be negligible.  Certainly, on 
a concert stage, since there will be more variation than that during the 
audience's time in the hall, a one cent deviation is meaningless. (One cent 
in a unison is a very different thing than one cent in a double octave).  
Heck,  when roomfuls of tuners, straining to compare tunings, don't detect 
that a piano is well-tempered as opposed to equal, then just how profound is 
a 1 cent deviation in either?    
 
>>There are plenty of situations where only the best you can do is close 
enough.<<

   I think this is more a statement of philosophy than a description of the d
emands of performance tuning.  
 
>>Even if you are a pure ETD tuner... a second pass will always yeild 
significant improvements.  

   Significant to who?   This was the point of my original post,  a second 
pass on this piano would have not yielded any improvement, since the degree 
of deviation was less than that caused by other factors.  Three trained, 
professional sets of ears found nothing less than beauty, even when prodded 
to critique.  So, how far could the tuning have profitiably been improved?? 
    What I was saying is that there is a point of diminishing returns for any 
situation, and the tuner that doesn't recognize that is going to be wasting 
time in pursuit of an idealized result that is impossible to attain, ie,  a 
tuner that feels he has achieved total perfection is deluded because total 
perfection is not possible on imperfect instruments.  That is not to excuse 
faulty work, simply a reflection of reality.  It will offend those that think 
perfection is possible, but I haven't seen a perfect tuning yet,and I have 
been at for 27 years in the most demanding enviroment I could find. (Not to 
boast, but there are now approx. 180 million CD's out there with my work on 
them and with the exception of two competing technicians, I haven't heard any 
complaints.  I offer that as some evidence of being "close enough"). 
 
Ed Foote RPT 
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html