Unison Flatter than each Individual string?

[Ron Nossaman]

>Is this not archaic?  With a ETD you tune the note until the 
>lights/pattern stops and you have and absolute A440 or whatever pitch you 
>want in a few moments.  Is this ETD tuned note any less of a tuned 
>note?  I got to feel there's a lot of ego involved in tuning aurally with 
>a tuning fork...that and masochism...
>
>David I.

Sure it's archaic - unlike inserting and removing paper shims and bending 
wires for fine adjustments. Unlike using small rocks glued to a piece of 
paper to scrape the epidermal filaments of sheep from the surface of a 
large mass of them used to whack the strings, or repeatedly stabbing these 
same masses with needles to enhance the musical experience. Maybe it's ego, 
maybe masochism, obviously a personality flaw. Maybe the charm is that the 
aural tuning is an individually built, hand crafted product that, like 
certain pianos of similar ilk, finds it's market appeal in the fact that 
this is the case, rather than being an utterly perfect machine built and 
validated, certified flawless product, each precisely like the last in 
being the best it can be. Maybe the aggravation of dealing with the archaic 
details is the only thing that makes the process entertaining enough to be 
bearable on a day to day basis. Maybe it would be too easy to just sit and 
let the machine do the thinking. Maybe the aural tuner isn't interested in 
learning the apparently hundreds of new tweaks and workarounds to try to 
duplicate with an ETD, a process they feel they are already realistically 
adequately functional at aurally. Maybe the best of all possible tunings on 
every single piano they see isn't their life's driving ambition, and they'd 
rather burn their brain cells pursuing something else that they consider 
more interesting. Maybe they're scared to death they will find out how bad 
a tuner they really are if they had a means of comparison. Maybe they're 
just technologically backward troglodytes that quit when they were ahead 
when they finally learned to work their fork. Maybe they're just being 
difficult, because it  annoys some folks. Maybe they actually find some 
satisfaction and reward in doing something the hard way, that's theirs when 
they are done - warts and all. Maybe they're allergic to batteries.

"What you have been obliged to discover by yourself leaves a path in your 
mind which you can use again when the need arises."
                                         -- G.C. Lichtenberg --


Ron N