Jim Coleman's Remarks; "The Great Tune-Off"

[TunerJeff@aol.com]

Dear Jim,

      Thank-you! An excellent post, both thorough and clear in presentation.
I have already snipped a copy from the printer and tucked it into the my
(recently aquired... for $19.95 yet!) edition of Jorgenson's"Tuning"... just
so I can peruse it again ad infinitum.
Scary, huh?

      Naturally, my post on "conservative-octaves" went OUT as your post came
IN. Ain't this 'puter stuff fun? Jes' moves real fast, sometimes. How could I
know you would lay such an excellent definition of stretched octaves on us?
Hmmm?

     Clearly, by your explanation, both of you had a similiar feel for the
stretch the piano wanted. Both tunings were heavily represented by the
cleaness of unisons and purity of multiple octaves. Did you find a need to
stretch the upper octaves a tad higher? Or were the 'corrections' more
related to differing temperament views working their way up the scale? Is
there some basis for the notion that out-of-tune octaves may actually be
'fighting' each other... in terms of differing beat-rates between partials...
or am I simply an arch-conservative tuner surrounded by a sea of liberal
tuner sympathizers?

     I do find that after finishing a tuning, and striking a large & friendly
chord, the freshly tuned piano often seems to have an enormous ...well...
strength to it's sound... and often carries a corresponding increase in
sustain. Don't you? I have always been taught, and understood, that this is
partially due to the idea that the strings, being in tune, actually
re-inforce each other's vibrations. Wouldn't this argue well for the
'conservative' theory? And signify some truth towards the notion that the
opposite (...destructive interference rather than constructive, as it 'twere)
might well follow?

Re- Unisons actually dropping the pitch of the note;
     Fascinating! Could the fundamental cause be that the strings are
averaging their partials? Could the energy system represented by the unison
strings have their own immutable laws!? Gosh!

       Thanks again, Jim. Your post was very interesting and complete...'
though I'd like to chain you to a computer/word processor and force a book
out of you. If I'm clanking when we meet (...in Orlando or Salt Lake) you'd
better run!

Thanks for your time,
Jeffrey T. Hickey, RPT
Oregon Coast Piano Services
TunerJeff @ aol.com

ps-
Dean!
I'm still very interested in your view of 'conservative octaves' vs.
'smoothly beating'.
What's your view?