This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ---------------------- multipart/related attachment ------_=_NextPart_002_01C3243C.A107D0F0 Hello there Nicholas =20 >I joined the list a few weeks ago. I'm not a professional tuner or=20 >technician, but a hobby pianist with a desire to learn the basics of=20 > tuning. =20 I joined the list today myself and should really leave it to my betters to offer you their invaluable advice.=20 =20 > Do you have any suggestions for books discussing piano tuning from=20 > the bottom up? I'm sort of looking for a "tuning for dummies", as=20 > well as a more advanced book discussing tuning, intonation and=20 > mechanical action. =20 That said I'll jump in at the deep end.... I too am a hobbyist. My interest stems from fairly recently being given as a gift a lovely looking 1875 Ernst Kaps built grand piano from Dresden, Germany, which has been sitting in an old farm house ballroom in Australia for the last 80 years. My local big city piano store, from whom I'd rented and bought pianos since I was 7 years old, suggested that tuning the Kaps would be "far too difficult for the lay person to contemplate and not even bother getting started." I took exception to that, raided the library in Canberra and discovered a wonderful 1906 publication written by an American who's name was J.Cree Fisher. I seem to recall that this has the imaginative title of "Piano Tuning" (followed by a sub-heading which I've forgotten), however, despite its age I found it easy enough to follow. Perhaps it's thorough, self-conscious, quasi-scientific manner leant it an old world charm that kept in harmony with the ugly beast providence had sought me out to tame. Another helpful tome was by another American named Arthur Reblitz entitled "Piano Servicing, Tuning & Rebuilding" issued by The Vestal Press, New York USA in c.1976. There are no doubt other views and more books than are available in Australian regional centres and this forum is the most likely place to learn what those books written since 1906 and 1976 respectively might be.=20 =20 > What digital devices are available for computer-assisted tuning?=20 > (I read your discussion of the Verituner - it looks really=20 > interesting.) Do you think that such a device would be useful when=20 > learning tuning? =20 I found those two books, together with the Korg OT12 to confirm pitch (and to set it just a notch higher than perfect) gave me the chance to transform what was an awful sounding, humourless machine into something which has a richness in its bass strings approximating the sounds encountered, to borrow from modern music, the 2nd to 3rd minute of "Sit down, stand up" on Radiohead's new album "Hail to the thief" (track two). [Not a bad album if you like that sorta thing like]. For those not in the know, this is an agreeable thing to the author's ear. =20 =20 Yet machines such as the Verituner and the Korg OT12 to confirm pitch are probably useful to get you quickly from A to B, but it won't teach you to tune. Reckon one still needs to follow the path evenly to spread the tension as the plate-maker and scale-draughter intended over a few drunken nights when they created the piano you'll probably end up wrecking. And, although being a mere jack-of-all-trades I'm very easily satisfied with the confirmation of the results, the digitiser's not taught me any more than being able to accurately read a gauge and adjust tensions accordingly. All depends on what you what to know "how" to tune for. This is a matter entirely for you.=20 If you wish to tune your own instruments in a hurry, and, you're your only client, go for it. It's great fun. There's probably hundreds of machines and programs to investigate. Go and break some strings and enjoy. There's nothing more invigorating than seeing a healthy F-string from the fourth octave flying across two rooms unexpectedly into your wife's tulips as she's placing their vase on the table as lunch is about to be served. We got married a mere 173 days ago and the arc of that string as it left the hitch pin and headed north is the closest thing that's brought us even near an argument.=20 =20 > A friend of mine suggested that with a digital tuning device it=20 > would be possible to "save" the state of the piano (all the=20 > frequencies, or string states) to the device and then restore it=20 > almost exactly as it were months later. Is this really possible? I=20 > guess there must be something more to it, otherwise there would be a=20 > lot more digital tuning devices around. =20 Hmmm... sounds very much out of my league but entirely possible. I'd love to know too. My garden variety tuner (photo attached on aforementioned c. 1875 Kaps - ser.#4496) just doesn't have that that capability. Wish it did. It'd be like a "before and after" photo. =20 =20 =20 All the best of luck with it Nicholas.=20 =20 Hope there's plenty of others on this list more sensible than I am to steer you in the right direction. =20 Cheers=20 =20 Simon Bedak Level 12 20-26 O'Connell Street Sydney NSW Australia=20 Ph : (02) 9221 9500 Fax: (02) 9221 5277 Mo : 0407 408 092 =20 =20 =20 ------_=_NextPart_002_01C3243C.A107D0F0 An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/a9/7e/be/4f/attachment.htm ------_=_NextPart_002_01C3243C.A107D0F0-- ---------------------- multipart/related attachment A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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