business cards

[Brian Trout]

I started out with that model, Clyde!  I don't remember much about the model
number and such, but I do remember all of the little wheels a turnin'.  Conn
Strobotuner does ring a bell.

I was in my second or third (??) year of high school.   I was at a boarding
academy, and went to school for one half of the day, or a little more, then
worked for the other half.  I worked in the music department.  One day, my
boss brought in the '12 wheeled wonder', a tuning hammer, and a couple of
rubber mutes, and announced to me that I'd be tuning a piano today.  He gave
me a little introduction, and that's how I got started.

I grew to hate that little machine very quickly, however, because the pianos
sounded pretty nasty when I was done.  It didn't stretch the octaves, at
least not that I knew of, and I always ended up disappointed with the
results.  So came the desire to learn to tune aurally, which I still do
sometimes.  My start into aural tuning was via the "Empire School of Piano
Tuning" home study course, which was a total and complete waste of time and
money.  I learned the basics of "real" aural tuning in the one chapter on
tuning in John W. Travis' book, "A Guide To Restringing".  Although I seldom
use that exact temperament, I was able to extrapolate a pretty good overview
of how the intervals relate to each other, and that's been invaluable over
the years.  That one chapter was the catalyst that made it all "click" for
me.  Then it made sense.

It took me a long time before I would even look at a tuning "machine".  I
had no faith that a machine could really do a good job.  But having seen the
results obtained by TuneLab, RCT, and Acutuner, I have more faith than I
used to.  (I'm still gonna check aurally to see if the machine's tuning
suits me, and if it doesn't, I'll change it to my liking.)  Overall, I've
found that if the machines get good FAC (or similar) input, their output is
pretty darned good.

FWIW...

Brian Trout
Quarryville, PA
btrout@desupernet.net