Overpulls was Re: Best Tuning Strategy using SAT III

[A440A@aol.com]

Alan writes: 
<< When I use the ETD, my pukingly persistent predeliction for perfectionism 
takes over and I just have to stop the lights. So for the example given, where 
accuracy isn't the issue, but speed is, I can go faster just setting a rough 
temperament, then octaves up and down using only fifths as checks (double 
octaves or arpeggiated chords in the upper treble).  >>

Greetings, 

       I too suffered from this when I began using the SAT, however, I found 
the way to finer tunings was to let  the machine to do all the "tractor" work 
in a first pass, and then just be a guide on your final tuning.  
     Stopping the lights on a pitch raise is like using a micrometer to hang 
picture frames.  I find no need to be that accurate at that stage.  AND,  if 
you will just "get near" from A0-88, resetting the pitch raise function each 
octave,  you will have a well balanced, albeit out of tune, piano, ready to be 
fine tuned with little fear of octaves drifting behind you make the tuning pass 
with most of your attention on unisons.  I often do a 15 minute, 20 cent 
pitch raise, and tunings will usually exhibit surprising stability.  
     I found the key to getting my speed up was to allow myself one downward 
tuning movement per pin on a pitch raise.  After bumping the rust loose and 
pulling the string sharp, I watch the lights while dropping the pitch.  When the 
lights stop, I stop. They will sometimes then move back sharp, so on the next 
pin, I go a little flatter. It is easy, over the course of 5 or 10 pins, to 
have left an average that is extremely close to what you would have had if 
every light had been stopped.  This is the place for looseness and speed.  
    With only one movement per pin my brained learned the pattern, and how 
much "windage" was required to leave that note almost still.  I had to 
continually remind myself, at first,  to just make the move and go on to the next, but 
usually one piano is enough.  If I forget and begin to go back and forth, I am 
just trying to tune fast and the whole purpose of a fast, 15 minute fix for 
flatness is wasted. 
      Once mastered, I found it a speedy tool when flat pianos are 
encountered.  It lets me put a very close tuning on anything if I have 80 minutes or so. 
 Another plus for this method is that it allows all the pins to be "set", as 
you go, so if on the final pass, the string is right, you can wiggle the pin, 
test-note it, and go on.   
       I also use the pitch raise calculator when I am doing a one pass 
tuning and the pitch is off by more than one cent.  Hey, I don't know if anybody 
could really discern the few tenths of a cent that might alter an uncorrected 
tuning, but I paid for them features and I am too much of a tightwad to let them 
go to waste.  
Regards 
 
Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html