Cracking the unisons

David Andersen david@davidandersenpianos.com
Fri, 06 Jan 2006 09:47:57 -0800


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> Cracking the unison was described by Virgil Smith in PTG 2/95, although f=
or
> him it was a very casual matter. I referred to it=A0 as "prior art" in my 1=
/97
> article, although when I first tumbled on it, it quickly took on the high=
ly
> aural useful technique pitch shimming. In years of conversation, I never =
ran
> across anyone doing something similar. This is not to claim ownership of =
the
> technique of pitch shimming (or even unison cracking), just to observe th=
at as
> a seemingly simple technique ready to be stumbled on by any aural tuner, =
it's
> a remarkably obscure one.



Hey, Bill---to me, pitch shimming is synonymous with cracking a unison:
making micro-incremental pitch shifts in a 3 string note; I think
experienced tuners start doing it unconsciously at some point, but it never
really blossomed for me as a foundational tuning tool until I threw my felt
strip away and started tuning unisons fully on the fly---open-string tuning=
.
Now, 5 years later, I literally sculpt and balance the temperament by very
fast and precise shimming of the unisons---and I can set a highly idealized=
,
close-to-perfect temperament, solid as a rock, all open strings, on
basically any piano, in 15-20 minutes.

Pitch shimming is also incredibly useful as you tune down into the bottom o=
f
the piano, especially in the all-important and devilish tenor break
area---the horrific, deliberately confusing end of the long
bridge----aaahhhhhhh!!!! I scared myself.....But reallly, this a, perhaps
the, crucial area of the piano to tune.  If you get it right, and the
octaves are stretched just the slightest bit flat as they should be, you
move to the bass with confidence.

OK?  OK then......

Best,=20
David Andersen

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