Tuning with a fork and the Sanderson Baldassin procedure.

[Richard Moody]

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To match a string on the piano with an A440 tuning fork or A442 tuning
fork takes a little more time than using a $19 pocket guitar tuner and
is useful really only for a "test".   BUT in reality you never match
A440, you only determine how far you are from it and make a decision as
the expert, to say, "this is close enough", or " the pitch needs to be
raised and I need two tunings to get as good as I can get it.  If the
pitch needs to be raised you must make an expert guess how far above the
pitch you should go. 
    If the piano is sitting on 439 or 441 and the contracts calls for
440, you are in compliance if you tune the piano to its A4 within this
slight variance.    So machine tuners adjust the machine, and aural
tuners go ahead for the touch up.  For some machine tuners 4 cents may
look like a lot.  But for musicians it is no problem. 
 
If you want to deliver the best tuning, any pitch raise should be
touched up or at least "inspected" 24 hours later to allow for
"settling"
and this is only the first of a number of considerations before changing
the pitch of a performance instrument.  Because to raise to pitch you
must go OVER pitch which is a guess because you know the piano will come
down---but how much???  So what is the point of determining with 15
minutes of tests how far off A440 you are with a tuning fork?  Just
holding it in your hand for 30 seconds will change its pitch as the
cheapest electronic pocket tuner will show.    So I have always
advocated a range of 1 cps below or above  the desired pitch is OK and
the piano will be in better tune for the performance if tuned within
this variance rather than raised or lowered to  5 or .5 cents according
to the machine.     
    Lately I have been listening to the fork, putting it down, listening
to A4 on the piano and if it sounds close enough, the tests come out
closer than you would expect.   For "accurate" pitch raises you do need
to know the beat rates as determined by the fork or  the reading of A4
by a machine. 
  For concert tunings it is getting to the point where you should see
what the electronic tuner says because these days most musicians carry a
cheap pocket tuner.  In the "good ole days" I bet it was between 438 and
442 before they complained.  
    Of course you can go on and on, like listening to F2 on the piano
with the tuning fork in your teeth. and comparing  the rate of F2 and A4
(10th) on the piano.  But still, if you have to raise pitch the rate of
A4 on the piano it will beat sharp with the fork  at first.   By how
much??  Experience is the best mentor.
 
Richard Moody     www.pnotec.com 
 
    

"By far the best proof is experience".     Sir Francis Bacon
(1561-1626); English author and philosopher.

 
 
 []   -----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
Behalf Of Thomas Cole
Sent: Friday, August 20, 2004 11:40 PM
To: Pianotech
Subject: Re: Tuning with a fork and the Sanderson Baldassin procedure.



You don't need to count beats or make any calculations, although I did
find it useful, at first, to tune a couple of contiguous thirds - for
example, G2 - B2 and B2 - D#3 which have an approx. 4 beats to 5 beats
ratio - to learn what this relationship should sound like.

What makes this method work so well is that you can run a series of
three contiguous thirds and easily decide if the middle one sounds more
like the lower beat rate or the upper beat rate and adjust accordingly.

Tom Cole

Alan Forsyth wrote:


Isaac mentioned;
 
"One of the nicest tricks I learned with the different Us methods is
the 4:5 relation from contiguous thirds. ............"
 
I tried this once long ago but was flummoxed when it came to
distinguishing the ratios. How on earth is one supposed to tell aurally
whether one beat rate is 25% faster or 20% slower than another beat
rate?
 
AF


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