Perfect Unisons was Re: ETD's, aural or both

[Alan R. Barnard]

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"Perfect" is such a relative term. I've got a few pianos around here in =
which "perfect" can only be defined as "best this ornery old upright, =
puky PSO, stupid spinet, or baby bland will do."

But I know and agree with what you are saying. Sour notes are the most =
obvious and obnoxious defect in a tuning. Octaves come second, but it's =
not too hard to make decent sounding octaves. Even our local "tooner" =
with his electronic guitar tuner (no kidding!) gets okay single octaves.

I think only fairly proficient pianists start hearing double and triple =
octaves as "off," and only the truly trained will nit-pick about =
temperament, spread, stretch, and interval issues--unless the errors are =
pretty severe.

Anyway, that's my whole three years of experience talking. Ha.=20

The Bible says "Be ye therefore perfect ..."  That is certainly my goal =
on every note in every piano, but sadly not possible  in many cases.

There is a nice fellow who has tuned in this area for over 30 years. I =
watched and marveled as he tuned a Kawaii studio (admittedly not one of =
my nightmare pianos) using only one split treble mute, his hammer, and a =
C fork. He did a 4ths and 5ths temperament, tuned to the top, then to =
the bottom, unisons as he went. Very few checks, mostly double octaves. =
Took him 45 minutes and we were talking the whole time.

This is the piano I play for our church. It sounds great ... for a =
couple of weeks. Then the unisons start drifting quite a bit, though our =
building does not have the extreme climate ups and downs that many =
churches have.

He told me he tunes 6 or 7 pianos, most days, and I believe him. But I =
could not in good conscience leave a piano that unstable.

Stable, "perfect" unisons really are key.

My $0.02

Alan Barnard



From: Wimblees@aol.com=20
  To: pianotech@ptg.org=20
  Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2002 9:46 PM
  Subject: Re: ETD's, aural or both


  In a message dated 9/19/02 12:20:25 AM !!!First Boot!!!, =
pianolover88@hotmail.com writes:=20



    I guess the way i see it is, no matter which technique we may =
employ, it's=20
    always the results that speak the loudest.=20

    Terry Peterson=20





  And regardless of the tools that are used, and no matter which =
temperament is used, if the unisons aren't perfect, you might as well =
throw all of it out the window.=20

  Wim=20

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