Tuning stability and efficiency

[Thomas Cole]

Ben,

The problem is that you can't tune an untuned piano. 10 - 15 cents needs 
a pitch adjustment. You have to first "tune it", quickly get it into the 
ballpark, then only with it being very close to in tune can you expect 
to get a stable tuning with whatever method you choose.

Follow up with a second pass. Use the temperament strip for setting the 
temperament, clean up the unisons, then proceed toward the extremities 
using single muting.

Tom Cole

Ben Gac wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I would to get your feedback on what you all this is the most stable 
> and efficient way to tune.  I've been trying many, many different ways 
> over the past couple of months and asking other technicians that I 
> come across why they tune the way that they do.  I've been searching 
> for the optimal way that an aural tuner can tune fast and stably. 
>
> I've gathered that many technicians feel that tuning each string in 
> the piano as you go is the most stable way to tune a piano, leaving 
> out the strip mute altogether.  ETD users can particularly be the most 
> efficient with this method of tuning, but I've come across some 
> problems with it as an aural tuner:
> - First of all, if the piano is any more than about 10-15 cents out of 
> tune or if the unisons sound twangy, it's all but impossible to use 
> test notes, or at least three times as hard (three strings to adjust). 
> - Second, one must be EXACTLY correct when one tunes a note (hard for 
> the tweakers who like to go back and adjust), with either little room 
> for error, or else time gets consumed very fast going back over what 
> one has already tuned.
> - I've also found that if I use this method that my unisons go out of 
> tune as I continue to tune the piano as the tension gets displaced 
> across the soundboard and plate, and I have to go back and re-tune 
> them.  It's more frustrating than with a mute, because three strings 
> must be adjusted.
> The main reason it seems that this is some technicians' preferred 
> method is because tuning each string as one tunes up the piano is the 
> most stable because it adds tension to the piano immediately, unlike a 
> strip mute, which ends up adding tension later and can leave the 
> octaves less stretched...
>
> Strip muting, however, does have its advantages:
> - It's very easy to use when setting one's temperament, and one can 
> use test notes as easily as ever with only one adjustment to make if a 
> note is too far gone to hear a proper beat rate. 
> - Mistakes, when heard, can be adjusted quickly and effectively across 
> the entire keyboard (if all my Es are off, it's not too hard to fix 
> them if they're strip muted)
>
> But strip muting also has its disadvantages
> - Not as much tension is added to piano as early on, and in many cases 
> can wreak havoc on a perfectly single string tuned keyboard
> - Unisons can go out of tune just as quickly and need adjustment, 
> especially once the whole piano has been "tuned"
> - It could be argued that the strip deflects strings slightly and that 
> the pitch will change when the strip is removed.
>
> I've seen some aural technicians use various kinds of  "hybrid" 
> methods, including using a strip only for the temperament, and also 
> tuning two out of three strings in the unisons and leaving every other 
> crease in the strip in place until tuning everything out later (as I 
> believe Virgil Smith first pointed out: two strings vibrating in sync 
> actually resonate lower than one string resonating alone).
>
> Currently I've been been trying to use a method that incorporates the 
> best of both worlds:  I strip mute the whole piano.  I tune my 
> temperament, then work my way down to bottom of the bass.  I tune out 
> the unisons because it seems to me (whether it's true or not) that the 
> bass section would be the least affected by future changes in tension 
> on the piano, due to it being cross strung as well as the thicker bass 
> strings.  Then I tune the unisons out up through my temperament.  I 
> tune single strings (the temperament strip is already in place) for an 
> octave using all my checks, then tune out those unisons.  I repeat 
> that procedure all the way to the top of the piano, then check my 
> unisons across the piano and fix the offenders.  Last, I do a few 
> consecutive thirds checks to make sure that everything expands equally 
> across the keyboard.  If the piano is in good condition, I can usually 
> this in under an hour. 
>
> My questions for you all:
> - What are your reactions to what I've written (am I off my rocker, or 
> what?)
> - How do YOU tune, and why?
> - Can some of you scaling and rebuilding gurus tell me in a little 
> detail which sections of the piano are most prone to tension change, 
> and why?
> - What do you think is the most efficient and stable way an aural 
> tuner can tune a piano (ie, give his/her clients the best service for 
> an optimal amount of time)?
> - And lastly--How much does this all really matter? If the piano is 
> already far enough out of tune that any of the aforementioned 
> disadvantages actually make a difference, is it really going to be 
> noticeable when one tunes with a strip versus just one or two wedge 
> mutes?  And if we REALLY want a finished product, shouldn't we just 
> make two passes? 
>
>
> Thanks for bearing with my long email and questions...
>
> -Ben
>
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