machines or not? what?

[antares@euronet.nl]

On zaterdag, jun 21, 2003, at 14:00 Europe/Amsterdam, Tony Caught wrote:

>
>
>
>
> Tony Caught wrote:
>
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> Hopefully the people that write the programs for these ETD's are 
> listening
> and are hard at work rewriting some of the software to overcome the 
> known
> existing shortfalls. It would appear that this is going to be the 
> tuning
> method of the future so lets get it right now before it gets to late.
>
> Tony Caught
> Adelaide Australia
> caute@bigpond.com.au

I dare say Tony, that if you know how to tune unisons at their most 
beautiful (and I believe you can do that), and if you know how to 
really set dem pins solidly....than working with the machine I 
described to you before will freeze your blood.
Yesterday I came to the house of a very good, professional pianist. I 
usually do not tune for him as that is done by a colleague, so it is 
not my tuning client. He calls me mainly once a year for servicing his 
action and for a fresh voicing.
Of course I will then first tune his instrument (a Yamaha S400E).
This time, he complained about the S400, saying that already two times 
the grand had gone out of tune really fast, right after his tuner had 
tuned it.
So I decided to do a turbo tuning, with which I mean : a real concert 
tuning. I then take more care than usual, as if my life depended on 
whether the tuning would stay or not.
I took out 'ma box', decided very carefully on which pitch I should 
tune and took a full 50 minutes to set strings and pins according to 
the spinner on my ETD's display.
Afterwards the piano was ready for a concert and the pianist was 
ecstatic! (no pills, just weak herbal tea)
The instrument had changed so completely that he totally forgot about 
regulation and voicing.
As it was late in the afternoon, I decided I had had it myself for the 
day, and I promised to come back next week to finish the job.
What I am actually trying to say here, is that because the greatest 
care had been taken to follow exactly what my box was telling me, all 
intervals were astonishingly pure (as far as they can be) and the 
sequential progress was so even that all 88 keys formed one huge family 
in a very harmonic accordance.
This is what we as tuners strive for and what is so very difficult to 
accomplish a couple of times a day (tuners in Holland working for a 
boss do 6 a day).
My box listens to 8 overtones and is continually referring to a most 
perfect example. Next to that it aims for the very best and most honest 
distribution or spread between each interval.

I have learned to trust this ability and fare blinded on it. The only 
condition is that we make sure that we get those strings on the most 
exact spot where they need to be, but aren't we doing that every day? 
or aren't we at least trying?

I hope this example will make feel a bit more trusting.


Antares,
The Netherlands

see my web site : www.concertpianoservice.nl
and : www.grandpiano.nl