Contiguous Major Thirds Accuracy?

[David Love]

When I did this I set a two octave temperament: A2 - A4.  I tuned the two
octaves (plus the double octave) the way I thought they needed to be tuned
to sound clean usually a 4:2 octave from A3 - A4 slightly wide and a 6:3
octave A2 - A3 slightly whatever I needed to get the A2 - A4 double octave
clean but slightly wide.  I never thought about it exactly, just did it
until I was satisfied.  Then I filled in the bearings of contiguous thirds
and played around with the four notes (2 C#s and 2 Fs) until they all
sounded like 4:5 ratios.  It was more of a feel thing than an effort to
count it.  This is art stuff, closeyoureyesandlistenlettheforcebewithyou.
As you fill in the rest of the temperament you may run into a problem
catching it with your various checks and have to fudge things a little.
Depending on what you find you can figure out which note, notes or sometimes
the width of the octave that needs to be changed.  To be honest, that's why
I went to using a machine, at least to set temperaments.  So much easier,
faster and probably more consistent.  I spent too much time playing around
with it to get it just so and the machine was just more efficient.  I still
use checks as I tune the octaves going out from the center and I think
that's important because many (if not most) pianos will require some
modifications to the calculated tuning curve somewhere.  It's important to
catch those, I think, so I throw in few quick checks as I'm going but
they're all things I can reach with one hand (fortunately, I can easily
reach a tenth).  Best of both worlds, as I see it.  This has been discussed
endlessly on the list and I would search the archives thoroughly going back
several years as people have outlined their specific methods for both aural
and combo styles.  

 

David Love
davidlovepianos at comcast.net
www.davidlovepianos.com 

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Jeff Deutschle
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 4:35 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Contiguous Major Thirds Accuracy?

 

List:

 

Thank you all for the replies, including the entertaining ones.

 

I sometimes think the difference between a good piano tuning and a poor one
is the same difference between a good haircut and a poor one ... a couple of
weeks.

 

I was hoping some "hybrid" tuner had measured how accurately they can set
the thirds aurally by checking with an ETD. I have not found it in the
archives.

 

D.L:

 

Yes if there is a problem with the original CM3's it will show up as more
notes are tuned. Then the question arises as to which third (or both) is
wrong or is the problem due to a difficult break?

 

J.F:

 

You mention the importance of identical octave widths when tuning CM3's.
Would this mean that if octave widths are tuned differently to compromise
for a challenging break, that CM3's cannot be used?


-- 
Regards, 
Jeff Deutschle

Please address replies to the List. Do not E-mail me privately. Thank You.

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