For Aural Tuners only

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 12/4/99 7:19:08 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
pianotoo@imap2.asu.edu (Jim Coleman, Sr.) writes:

<< I found using the 6-3 type octave matching where the 
 minor 3rd A3-C4 would beat the same as the M6th C4-A4. This can even be 
 stretched a little more, so that the minor 3rd is just barely slower than 
 the M6th.
 
 In tuning downward from this area, the next two notes need to be especially
 lowered so that their 5ths are pure (would you believe I have even tuned
 them on the wide side occasionally?). >>

Thank you for this post, Jim.  It confirms what I have observed and have been 
saying about the Acrosonic for a long time.  It is often maligned, said to 
have "poor" scaling.  Yet what those of us who tune the HT's or any of the 
new temperaments based on historical precedents like yours and my Equal 
Beating Victorian, is that we can actually use what poses a problem or even a 
dilemma in ET to our advantage.  Any piano with the "hockey stick" low tenor 
bridge is apt to have this characteristic.

Twice for our local opera company, I prepared an Acrosonic to have a 
"Fortepiano"-like sound.  The company's rehearsal pianist is also the 
prompter and the only person available capable of effectively playing the 
recitatives.  She is not comfortable with a real fortepiano, nor was there 
really room for one in the pit, not to mention the cost, tuning 
reliabilty/instability and liability involved with such an expensive and rare 
instrument.

The two operas were Mozart's Don Giovanni and Rossini's Barber of Seville.  
The music director told me that he believed that in both instances, the 
fortepiano may have actually been used instead of a harpsichord when these 
composers were living.  

I gave the Acrosonic an extra bright sound with some very thin keytop and 
acetone applied directly on the striking surface.  I then trimmed some action 
cloth to mute off one string per unison in the entire tenor and treble 
sections.  I used an 18th Century Modified Meantone Temperament to tune 
aurally.  What I noticed at the time was that I could get a very nice, nearly 
pure C3-E4 3rd and also very slow FA, GB and DF# 3rds without much harshness 
at all at the bottom of the cycle of 5ths. The authentic "period" sound of 
the imitation fortepiano was uncanny!

Since then, I have discovered that the program I made for the EBVT on a 
Steinway L fits the Acrosonic quite well.  I use it without modification but 
tune the wound strings in the bass aurally (as I usually do when I have not 
made the program specifically for the piano I am tuning).  The effect on the 
Acrosonic is a bit different from that of the Steinway L, however.  It does 
the same as with the 18th Century Modified Meantone Temperament, it gives 
purer 3rds at the top of the cycle of 5ths without undue harshness at the 
bottom.

I believe you have one of my earlier programs for a Steinway L (or maybe even 
the latest which was made several years ago already, I am not sure). Perhaps 
you might try the Steinway EBVT program on the Acrosonic to see what you get. 
 My customers often remark that my tunings are the "sweetest" and/or the 
"most musical" they have ever heard.  And that kind of positive feedback 
causes me to continue doing what I have been doing year after year.  I 
certainly have never had a complaint about it, never, ever a single comment 
about "uneven 3rds" or "wobbly 5ths" or anything else that a piano technician 
might perceive.
 
Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin