The basics of tuning

[Nicholas Asplund]

Hello,

I joined the list a few weeks ago. I'm not a professional tuner or 
technician, but a hobby pianist with a desire to learn the basics of 
tuning. I have a Steinway Hamburg O and I have also found a wonderful 
tuner/technician in my area. However, since I have realised over the 
years that the state of the instrument (tuning, intonation, action) 
affects my playing deeply, I would like to learn more about these 
matters. This way, I would also know more about what to ask for from 
my technician.

Here are my questions:

1) Do you have any suggestions for books discussing piano tuning from 
the bottom up? I'm sort of looking for a "tuning for dummies", as 
well as a more advanced book discussing tuning, intonation and 
mechanical action. Right now, I am able to count beat waves, tune 
unisons and to correct individual tones in between regular tunings by 
my technician, but I would like to know a lot more about tuning 
technique and tuning schemes. (Don't worry - I would not expose my 
Steinway to my far-from-perfect tuning skills, I have other 
instruments available.)

2) What digital devices are available for computer-assisted tuning? 
(I read your discussion of the Verituner - it looks really 
interesting.) Do you think that such a device would be useful when 
learning tuning?

3) A friend of mine suggested that with a digital tuning device it 
would be possible to "save" the state of the piano (all the 
frequencies, or string states) to the device and then restore it 
almost exactly as it were months later. Is this really possible? I 
guess there must be something more to it, otherwise there would  be a 
lot more digital tuning devices around.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

Best greetings,

Nicholas Asplund.
nicholas@gressus.se
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