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<font face="Arial">Those are eminently interesting observations
Ron! I especially like your conclusion: "The closer I get to
understanding how all this works, however, the more I realize that
pianos aren't entirely tunable". Another of your "bons mots" was
"No tuning is ever finished, just left behind", which you modestly
credited to someone else.<br>
<br>
I stand by my own definition of tuning: Part arithmetic and part
flower-arranging.<br>
<br>
I too have often come across pianos with the top notes more than a
quarter tone sharp. And I have never felt that it's been because
the rest of the compass went flat and the top notes didn't! I
can't think that it really sounded nice when the tuner had just
finished.<br>
<br>
I've never attempted to use an ETD for the whole compass. I use it
for the temperament, and maybe if I am struggling with a "killer
octave" (but generally I think I manage that by ear). Like you, I
thought in early days that inharmonicity would ensure that tuning
octaves beatless meant the right stretch automatically. But
nothing is ever simple!<br>
<br>
The Steinway guy's octave with eight beats per second at C7 is
certainly interesting. It might sound nice aqnd bright at the end
of an arpeggio, but I can't think that high chords would've been
easy on the ear.<br>
<br>
Best regards,<br>
<br>
David.<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">This confused me for some time. Didn't the
inharmonicity of piano strings guarantee a pure sounding octave
was stretched? One out of state expert who came in to replace a
set of hammers on one of the university's Steinways (gotta have
a Steinway expert, you know) even carefully explained to me how
he "started stretching" octaves at the beginning of the capo
section, and went up to about eight beats per second in the
octave at c-7/8! I heard that tuning, and wasn't awfully
convinced, nor was I awfully convinced by the tunings I followed
that were flat through octave 5-6, and were nearly a semitone
sharp at c-8. I never had anything resembling decent tuning
instruction, so it took me some time to piece a sensible picture
together from what I heard from others, read, and found in
others' tunings. Learning something about more meaningful
interval tests (piecemeal) from better educated aural tuners
finally cleared up a lot of misinformation and the process
became a lot more sensible to me. The closer I get to
understanding how all this works, however, the more I realize
that pianos aren't entirely tunable.<br>
Ron N </blockquote>
<br>
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