Duaine A "normal" tuning is one where the piano is basically on pitch. About half of my customers get their piano tuned at least once a year, and I have about 2 dozen twice a year customers. The rest of the normal tunings were tuned by someone else within a year or so. Yes, the 20 minutes with the ETD includes unisons. I tune unisons as I go. I spend about 15 to 20 seconds on each note. I really don't need much more time that that. I guess because I've been doing this for 35 years, I've gotten a good handle on how much to pull or push the tuning lever to get the note to where I want it, the first time. That just comes with experience. For the aural portion, because, as with you, most of my notes are either dead on or very close, it doesn't take much to tweak them. But I check, and double check, each note, using a variety of interval checks, to make sure each note is exactly where I want it. There is no firm number, but after my initial ETD tuning, I would guess that about half the notes need to be tweaked, mostly in the fifth and sixth octave. BTW, I take only ten minutes to do a pitch raise, which is done the same as normal tuning, but I don't spend much time on each note. All I want to do is get the tension of the whole piano up to where it belongs. I don't spend much time trying to get the lights to stop still on each note, or make sure each one of my unisons is dead on. I just want to get the piano in the ball park. Once the pitch is up to 440, then I do a regular ETD tuning. Depending on how the piano reacts, I might do a follow up ETD tuning before I end with an aural tuning. The total time is usually not more than 60 - 75 minutes. Wim -----Original Message----- From: Duaine Hechler <dahechler at att.net> To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org> Sent: Sat, Feb 5, 2011 4:07 pm Subject: Re: [pianotech] 0 - 88 in 20, or....? Okay, I'll bite ................ Please elaborate on this magical "normal" tuning in 20 minutes. That means for each - note - *not strings* - only .227~ minutes per note r 13~ seconds per note Does this include unisons ? Includes mutes, strip mute - what ? On the retuning in 40 minutes. That means for each - note - *not strings* - only .454~ minutes per note r 27~ seconds per note Includes mutes, strip mute - what / all necessary aural checks ? Does this include unisons ? Sounds - too - fast - to - me !!! Or this is a repeat customer which has had the piano tuned recently. Duaine On 02/05/2011 06:33 PM, tnrwim at aol.com wrote: Several members mentioned tuning the piano using an ETD starting at note A0 and going up to C88. When I first got my SAT, I did that. Then someone mentioned that they tune starting at the last note of the bass, and go down to A0, and then tuning the treble, starting with the first note of the treble So I started doing it that way. I think I get better results that way. While some of you have said it takes you about an hour and half to tune a piano, including unisons, it takes me about 20 minutes, (on a normal tuning). (I then spend about 40 minutes retuning the piano aurally, but let's not go there again.) What are some of your findings. WIm. - uaine Hechler iano, Player Piano, Pump Organ uning, Servicing & Rebuilding eed Organ Society Member lorissant, MO 63034 314) 838-5587 ahechler at att.net ww.hechlerpianoandorgan.com - ome & Business user of Linux - 11 years -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20110205/37f449c7/attachment.htm>
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