<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>HTML Message</TITLE> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY style="BORDER-TOP-STYLE: none; BORDER-RIGHT-STYLE: none; BORDER-LEFT-STYLE: none; BORDER-BOTTOM-STYLE: none"> Finished tuning a Yamaha grand (2 pedals, about C sized, grey market?) and was filling out my invoice when I slightly sliced my right pinky--paper cut, right near the nail. I didn't think too much of it, there was a drop of blood which wiped on a tissue.   Put tools away except for hammer, went to make customary final check of tuning. Got to playing a little Brahms and kind of distractedly looking at the lady's weird little dog.   When I looked back at the keyboard, it looked like OJ had been playing Rachmaninoff. With me staring stupidly at my finger and the keys, in walks the customer.   BTW as to the "false beats" discussion that has been going on (and on and on ...) I have a poser, an observation: How come we don't know what is really going on? It seems like with all the science available to us (math, high speed photography, spectrum analyzers, etc.) that we would have more definitive knowledge of causes and cures by now.   It's like the other question I posed and have never felt I had a satisfactory answer: Since a piano cycles up and down, typically, with humidity swings, why doesn't it always stay centered around the last tuned pitch. In other words, what is the cause of long term major pitch drops and what has changed in that piano over the 20 years since it was last at pitch. Do the pins turn? Does the wire just keep stretching? Why don't we know?   Alan Barnard Salem, MO Joshua 24:15 </BODY></HTML>