[pianotech] The big discussion

Ryan Sowers tunerryan at gmail.com
Sat Jan 29 10:01:00 MST 2011


I believe it means that when doing the final tuning of the third string of a
unison, all three strings are left open.

There are some cases where the right string and the center string sound
good, and the left string and the center string sound good, but when the
unison is totally open, it seems slightly off. Sometimes the result is
improved by listening to the whole unison when adjusting the third string.

Steinway recommends this in the tuning section of their new manual. The
concept is, since we listen to all three strings when the piano is played,
we should do so while we tune.

I've been evolving that direction over the past several years. (ever since I
lost my temperament strips that one day! :) )  I still find it convenient to
use 2 mutes for most of the tuning, but occasionally use one. When doing my
final listening I often only use my finger to quickly mute out a left or
right string and then adjust it with the unison open.

I rarely use mutes in the bass section. The complexity of bass string tone
makes it even more important to do final checks with the unison unmuted.

Ry



On Sat, Jan 29, 2011 at 4:25 AM, David Boyce <David at piano.plus.com> wrote:

>  I thought "open string method" referred to the method of tuning without
> muting any strings at all in the process, for example when doing a rapid
> first pass for a pitch raise.
>
> Tuning the unisons as you go, still normally involves the use of mutes. No?
>
> Best regards,
>
> David Boyce.
>
>
>
>  Hi Lim,
>
> It's my fancy way of saying I tune the unisons as I go, no temperament strips involved. That's it!
>
> -Ben
>
>
>  Hi Ben, what is tuning aurally using'0pen String Method'?
> Thanks
> Lim
>
>
>


-- 
Ryan Sowers, RPT
Puget Sound Chapter
Olympia, WA
www.pianova.net
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