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<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>Ben</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>Unless the piano is at pitch before
you start the tuning, all bets are off with stability. If the piano is 10-15
cents flat then, by all means, mute strip the piano and do a full pitch raise.
Then once the piano is in the ballpark, then tuning unisons as you go will
deliver a very stable tuning.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>That being said, tuning unisons as
you go also requires very advance tuning skills. I'm a big advocate for single
mute tuning and find that it yields not only good stability but a better
illustration of inharmonicity issues. But it also requires the tuner to
have an absolutely solid grasp over the tuning procedure, otherwise the
process will take too long and become a laborious process.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>If you are relatively young to the
business, use the strip mute and gain better control over the process. As you
get better and better, start experimenting with pianos which are
already in pretty decent tune and do a complete tuning using nothing but 2- 3
wedge mutes. You'll find that you become much more sensitive to your octave,
fourths, and fifths presentations. You'll also find that you'll pay more
attention to making a very clean, useable unison which can be used throughout
the tuning process.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>Tom Servinsky</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=ben@benspianotuning.com href="mailto:ben@benspianotuning.com">Ben
Gac</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=pianotech@ptg.org
href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">Pianotech Mailing List</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, August 19, 2008 8:25
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Tuning stability and
efficiency</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2></FONT><FONT
face="Century Schoolbook" size=2></FONT><BR></DIV>Hi everyone,<BR><BR>I would
to get your feedback on what you all this is the <SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; TEXT-DECORATION: underline">most stable</SPAN> and
<SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; TEXT-DECORATION: underline">efficient</SPAN>
way to tune. I've been trying many, many different ways over the past
couple of months and asking other technicians that I come across why they tune
the way that they do. I've been searching for the optimal way that an
aural tuner can tune fast and stably. <BR><BR>I've gathered that many
technicians feel that tuning each string in the piano as you go is the most
stable way to tune a piano, leaving out the strip mute altogether. ETD
users can particularly be the most efficient with this method of tuning, but
I've come across some problems with it as an aural tuner: <BR>- First of all,
if the piano is any more than about 10-15 cents out of tune or if the unisons
sound twangy, it's all but impossible to use test notes, or at least three
times as hard (three strings to adjust). <BR>- Second, one must be
EXACTLY correct when one tunes a note (hard for the tweakers who like to go
back and adjust), with either little room for error, or else time gets
consumed very fast going back over what one has already tuned.<BR>- I've also
found that if I use this method that my unisons go out of tune as I continue
to tune the piano as the tension gets displaced across the soundboard and
plate, and I have to go back and re-tune them. It's more frustrating
than with a mute, because three strings must be adjusted.<BR>The main reason
it seems that this is some technicians' preferred method is because tuning
each string as one tunes up the piano is the most stable because it adds
tension to the piano immediately, unlike a strip mute, which ends up adding
tension later and can leave the octaves less stretched...<BR><BR>Strip muting,
however, does have its advantages:<BR>- It's very easy to use when setting
one's temperament, and one can use test notes as easily as ever with only one
adjustment to make if a note is too far gone to hear a proper beat rate.
<BR>- Mistakes, when heard, can be adjusted quickly and effectively across the
entire keyboard (if all my Es are off, it's not too hard to fix them if
they're strip muted)<BR><BR>But strip muting also has its disadvantages<BR>-
Not as much tension is added to piano as early on, and in many cases can wreak
havoc on a perfectly single string tuned keyboard<BR>- Unisons can go out of
tune just as quickly and need adjustment, especially once the whole piano has
been "tuned"<BR>- It could be argued that the strip deflects strings slightly
and that the pitch will change when the strip is removed.<BR><BR>I've seen
some aural technicians use various kinds of "hybrid" methods, including
using a strip only for the temperament, and also tuning two out of three
strings in the unisons and leaving every other crease in the strip in place
until tuning everything out later (as I believe Virgil Smith first pointed
out: two strings vibrating in sync actually resonate lower than one string
resonating alone).<BR><BR>Currently I've been been trying to use a method that
incorporates the best of both worlds: I strip mute the whole
piano. I tune my temperament, then work my way down to bottom of the
bass. I tune out the unisons because it seems to me (whether it's true
or not) that the bass section would be the least affected by future changes in
tension on the piano, due to it being cross strung as well as the thicker bass
strings. Then I tune the unisons out up through my temperament. I
tune single strings (the temperament strip is already in place) for an octave
using all my checks, then tune out those unisons. I repeat that
procedure all the way to the top of the piano, then check my unisons across
the piano and fix the offenders. Last, I do a few consecutive thirds
checks to make sure that everything expands equally across the keyboard.
If the piano is in good condition, I can usually this in under an hour.
<BR><BR>My questions for you all:<BR>- What are your reactions to what I've
written (am I off my rocker, or what?)<BR>- How do YOU tune, and why? <BR>-
Can some of you scaling and rebuilding gurus tell me in a little detail which
sections of the piano are most prone to tension change, and why?<BR>- What do
you think is the most efficient and stable way an aural tuner can tune a piano
(ie, give his/her clients the best service for an optimal amount of
time)?<BR>- And lastly--How much does this all really matter? If the piano is
already far enough out of tune that any of the aforementioned disadvantages
actually make a difference, is it really going to be noticeable when one tunes
with a strip versus just one or two wedge mutes? And if we REALLY want a
finished product, shouldn't we just make two passes? <BR><BR><BR>Thanks
for bearing with my long email and
questions...<BR><BR>-Ben<BR><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>