Strip Mutes vs. Single Wedges

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

Dear List,

This topic has come up again even though there was a long thread on it a short
while ago.  Some of the newer subscribers have asked my opinion on it.  I'd
like to reopen the discussion again and welcome all points of view.  (No HT's
in this thread).

AMATEUR VS. PROFESSIONAL?  This is the question that prompted me to write.
Barrie wrote that while he was learning the trade, he used a strip mute in the
very beginning but after a certain point was obliged to not use it or have a
lower grade as the consequence.  Jonathan wrote privately that he was told
that "only amateurs use a strip mute".

That is strictly an opinion which has no logical basis.  My first reaction to
that statement was that if this is true, I am an amateur piano tuner of nearly
30 years self-employed experience and that the men I learned this technique
from nearly 20 years ago, Jim Coleman, Sr., RPT and the late George Defebaugh
RPT, both PTG Golden Hammer award winners must be just amateurs too.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES.  The strip mute can be inserted in over the
entire scale of a piano in about one minute by most experienced users.  To
have to insert wedges for each and every note takes time too.  Inserting
wedges can become tedious and time consuming.

Whether tuning aurally or electronically, the strip mute allows the tuner to
move over the scale with relative ease.  Pitch raising (or lowering) becomes
more rhythmic and less stressful either way.  

The usual disadvantage that I hear is that the tuning will not be as stable
when done with a strip mute.  I recall George Defebaugh saying, "You can't
raise the pitch and fine tune at the same time".  It seems to me that many
people do, in fact, try to do this.  There have been discussions recently
about the RCT being able to accurately calculate the amount of overpull
necessary better than any other method.  While I do not doubt this, it remains
true that not all pianos respond the same way.

Ron N. wrote a very excellent description of how he calculates the overpull
aurally.  It is essentially what I do when tuning aurally.  I use the SAT most
of the time now but I still find it true that not all pianos respond to the
usual suggestion.  There are times when I tune the treble and high treble 20¢
sharp and still have to go through it a 3rd time because the piano is so
unstable.

Therefore, I almost never tune a piano just once.  I anticipate that I will
always do a rough tuning (with calculated over pull) followed by a fine
tuning.  If, on the second pass, the tuning is not close enough, I know that I
must do another rough tuning.  George D. often said, "You can tune a piano a
lot faster twice than you can fight with it once".  The usual amount of time
that I spend tuning a typical piano is 45 minutes.  I hear that many people
spend an hour and a half or more.  If I did not have my strip mutes, it
probably would take me that long too.

To me, if I were required to insert a mute twice for each unison then discover
that my pitches had not held, with or without a calculated overpull, then if I
had to correct each unison over and over or even worse, whole sections of the
piano, it would be, for me, a very frustrating "fight".

On the other hand, when I am doing the finest concert tuning work I can do and
I have all the time I need to get it done, I use the single mute to correct
and stabilize the unisons and small errors.  I usually cannot trust unisons
that have been made while simply pulling out the strip as I go.  In the end, I
agree with those who say that the very finest tuning can only be done with a
single mute.  It is just that I only reach that level after first doing a
thoroughly acceptable job with the strip mute.  

If I were required to do my ordinary, every day tunings with only a single
mute, I could never get the volume and consistency that I do with the strip.
My tunings would take much longer and they would be far less accurate and far
more unstable.

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin