At 01:30 11/4/2004 -0700, you wrote: > Except for that one concert tuning out of 1000 other tunings in homes, > schools, and churches, That's my problem. I've got up to 15 concerts/recitals a week at this time of year. > it just doesn't matter. Au contraire around here. They _will_ scream. The clarinet prof caught me in the hall just yesterday and mentioned that his studio piano had some "problems". > If the piano's a bit flat or sharp of 440, but basically in tune with > itself, I leave it that way, rather than raise or lower pitch and make it > more unstable. I don't have that option. These folks all have some sort of pitch source in their rooms - sometimes I'll tune the piano to it rather than my RCT. ;-} That's the only way I get to "cheat". > Now, I said "a bit,", meaning 2,3,4 beats, maybe. I didn't say 20 cents > or a quarter-step off. Oops, 4 beats (would that be Hertz?) is roughly 15¢ - pushing that 20¢ margin, I'd say. > In most places, who's gonna come check to see if it's exactly on > 440? Even if it's as much as 3 bps off from the church organ, I'll leave > it where it is in most cases because when they turn on the heat or the > lights or the air conditioning, or when summer rains or winter heating > season comes along, it's gonna change anyway. We're not calibrating the > international atomic clock (or whatever) here, just making pianos sound > decent most of the time for most players, only one out of probably more > like 10,000 of whom is a concert artist that demands exactly A=440 on > every piano all the time everywhere. Again, that's an occupational hazard of a college tech, so I have a hard time leaving any other piano at any other pitch. I never know if any one of the customer's picky relatives or friends might be visiting and playing. Conrad Hoffsommer - Keyboard Technician Luther College, 700 College Dr., Decorah, Iowa 52101-1045 Vox-(563)-387-1204 // Fax (563)-387-1076 -The only substitute for bad manners is good reflexes.
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