Aural? (self-starters) muting techniques, etc.

[Paul]

Roger
Sorry for  the delayed reply. Generally, when I pitch raise or lower a
piano, I leave all my strip mutes in, quickly set a temperament, tune the
center strings, and turn the pin of the muted strings about the same as the
center string, thus deaf (or blind) tune the rest of the unison. Once the
strip mutes are installed, they are not pulled until I begin tuning unisons.
I was concerned with string tension on plates and was tuning the tenor
octaves, then the bicords, then the treble, then the bass singles, until I
learned that its not necessary to drop the pitch of the piano to change a
set of bass strings. Now I set the temperament, tune all the way down the
bass (and muted bicords) and then all the way up the treble (tuning the
muted tricords). The piano come out very close to A440, making the fine
tuning sequence easier and more stable. When tuning unisons, I start at C88
and work each section of strings down to the break. The bass is tuned right
after tempering, then I tune up the bicords, back to my temperament. Hope
this helps.

Paul Chick

Roger wrote:
> Did I understand you correctly, 'with the mutes in'.  What does that
> mean?
>