[CAUT] FW: S&S Guidelines

[A440A at aol.com]

Fred writes: 
<<  Personally, I maintain both recital hall  
instruments within 1 cent of 440 at all times. I allow very minor  
float when I don't have time to correct it. Using an ETD, this is a  
pretty simple matter (though honing and nailing unisons is never  
really easy - no room for loss of focus). >>

   I do much the same, perhaps to a  bigger degree of slop or laziness, 
though.  I am tuning the hall pianos usually two or maybe three times a week.  
Changes of air, weather, lighting and audiences are constant through the 6 days a 
week or so (remember when we used to sit around saying "Change is the only 
constant, man" ?).  The concert pianos double as the stage pianos used for 
rehearsals, practise, accompaniment, so they are in constant use yet need to be 
within a couple of voicing needles of concert ready at all times. Having the piano 
2 cents sharp or flat has never been noticed, by anyone.  They breathe that 
much on their own.  
    If I am tuning for the choir or solo piano recital, and the piano is 2 
cents sharp or flat, that is where it is going to stay, unless the HVAC has 
skewed all the unisons and I have to tune the entire piano to clean that up.  In 
that case, I do use 440 as a default place.  But if it is in tune with itself, 
I will keep it where it is.  In the spring, I do gradually lower them by 
retuning 2 cents low each time, and reverse of that in the fall.  It helps keep 
them within tolerance for longer periods.  
    So, I view 440 as the pivot point these animals live around, but on a day 
to day basis, I gave up fighting the piano up and down over the last two 
cents.  I work less, the pianos are still just as close or far away at any given 
time as they were before, and nobody has a problem with pitch.  The temperament 
I keep them in has notes that are 4 cents away from standard ET and nobody 
has even noticed that when the pianos were also 2 cents off the center.  
    In recording work, where overdubs and various instrument combinations are 
exposing micro relationships 'tween notes and intervals, adherence to half 
cent exactitude pays dividends.  In most other environments, it is wasted effort 
at the expense of other, more rewarding investiments of our time and the 
customer's money, ie, unisons and octaves, maybe a leveling of a string or two.  
   It is about a 6 cent world out there, to spend inordinate amounts of time 
fussing with a 1 or 2 cent discrepancy where it can't be discerned is 
non-productive waste.  I have an advanced degree in unproductive waste, so I know...
Regards, 
Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
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