Les, Does this qualify as an unequal temperament? Best. Horace >Way to go, Richard! We're proud of you! > >A few years ago, I was called in to tune for a well-known artist, >whose name I won't mention. Her music director made a big deal >about what a great ear he had and insisted that the piano had to >be tuned to A-441. When he asked me if I could do so, I answered >"sure, no problem!" > >The piano was an older Baldwin Concert grand that I had been tuning >maybe 25-30 times a year for over a decade. The piano and I knew >each other so well that it almost tuned itself. Anyway, when I was >finished Mr Hot-shot music director came over, pulled a little elec- >tronic gizmo out of his pocket and checked my A against it, He was >ecstatic when it read 441. He not only paid and tipped me for the >tuning in cash, but asked me to stay until intermission, so that I >could tune it again. Again I got paid for another full tuning, even >though it turned out to only about a twenty-minute touch-up. > >Happy though the music director was with my tuning, there was one >thing he never knew.. I had tuned the piano to A-440 the way I always >did. Then, when I was finished, I went back to the A above middle C >and tweaked it up one CPS to A-441. Mr. Music Director with the "great" >ear never knew the difference! :-) > >Les Smith >lessmith@buffnet.net > > > >On Tue, 11 Mar 1997, Richard Moody wrote: > >> Once I tuned for a rental agency. One of the fellows called up and >> asked if I had a D tuning fork. >> "No", I said, "What the heck do you need a D fork for?" >> -"This guy wants to know if you can tune to D." >> "I don't understand, I tune to the A fork, that's what everyone >> tunes to these days, although there is a C fork, but I have never >> heard of using a D fork" >> "Well, he asked me if our tuner could de-tune a piano." >> "Oh you mean he wants an out of tune piano" >> I then heard laughter in the back ground, and realized that the >> speaker phone was on, and I had been set up once again. >> So if someone ever wants you to D-tune a piano ask them they want it >> to be flat or to be sharp. >> Richard Gotpaidtobebad >> >> ps The agency actually did have a customer that wanted to rent an >> out of tune piano. For a coffee comercial I heard. I dropped one >> string in a few unisons, they called the client and he listened to it >> over the phone and said that was exactly what he wanted, and was glad >> it would cost no more than a regular tuning and understood they >> should pay for the retune also. I tweeked the rest of the unisons >> and got paid for a full tuning in 10 minutes. >> >> Horace Greeley hgreeley@leland.stanford.edu "Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much. - Oscar Wilde LiNCS voice: 725-4627 Stanford University fax: 725-9942
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