Michael, Since you have tuned for a long time aurally, you will have no problem with the tuning test... David Ilvedson, RPT Pacifica, CA 94044 Original message From: "Michael Magness" To: pianotech at ptg.org Received: 4/8/2009 9:20:34 AM Subject: [pianotech] Aural Tuning vs ETD and Associate Guild Status I have been a piano technician for 40 years. When I started, aural tuning was the ONLY approved method of tuning a piano properly. What passed for ETD's at that time weren't designed for it, as it was explained to me. I had already learned to tune aurally and my ears cost me nothing, they came with the package, so the thought of acquiring one didn't occur to me. Fast forward 30 years I joined the Guild and I found that many if not all of the members of my chapter were using ETD's and I was considered somewhat of a dinosaur for not using one. About 2 years ago our chapter had, as a tech session, everyone bring their ETD for comparison and I had a chance to see them in action. I saw some I didn't care for and some I did, one in particular seemed to match my ear and my style. I resolved to acquire it when I could afford it. I bought my CyberTuner last September. I've seen the question asked what would you do if your ETD stopped working in the middle of a tuning? Well mine did, The battery warning flashed and I changed to a freshly charged one and instead of powering up the way it should have, it lost all of it's programming including the tuning program and I was left sitting there with a Compaq Ipaq with no tuning program in it. So I shut it off and finished the tuning aurally, not a problem really, just a minor irritation. I bought the unit because I was told by my friends that I could tune more pianos in a day with less stress/fatigue and that is true. It is a manmade unit and like all manmade things will have problems occasionally which is why I have a backup,me! By the way Dean Reyburn was very apologetic about the problem, had me ship it back to him and repaired the problem at no cost. I am still an associate in the Guild, I have never been treated any worse or any better than anyone else in my chapter. I have certainly made some friends and some enemies on this list but I don't believe it was ever because of my associate status. It was usually because I had an opinion, frequently not stated very well. Mike -- I intend to live forever. So far, so good. Steven Wright Michael Magness Magness Piano Service 608-786-4404 www.IFixPianos.com email mike at ifixpianos.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090408/c2b3b025/attachment.html>
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