First of all, I don't strip; I leave my clothes on. Nor do I strip the piano. If I were to strip the piano, I be hauling in paint & varnish remover, drop cloths, steel wool, denatured alcohol, scrapers, etc. <br>
Rather, I <i>strip-mute </i>the piano. I've tried tuning using only rubber (or felt) mutes and it takes way too long, regardless of the sequence, or procedure. I like temperament strips. It barely takes me 2 minutes to insert them, and I have the choice of either a) tuning all the middle strings so that I can then do checks of any type of interval from a minor third to a quadruple octave without worrying about unison strings that have slipped, thus "muddying" the intervals I'm trying to check, OR I can b) tune unisons as I go, and touch up anything that slips with a second pass. Either way takes about the same amount of time. <br>
Despite many technicians' claims to the contrary, I've never experienced that temperament strips or that <i>not </i>tuning the entire unison as you go results in less stability. <br> Also, I can pitch raise WAY faster aurally and using felt strips than I could with just mutes or having to wait for lights (or other display) to stop spinning. I tuned aurally for 25 years, then broke down and bought an ETD in hopes of saving time. It does sometimes, but not by much -- maybe 5 or 10 minutes at the most. I use it for the tuning, but do my final check and "tweaking" without it. <br>
<div class="gmail_quote"><font> </font><< you "old timers" who say your too old to change>><br> (That's "you're" -- you are)<br> I'm not too old to change. I try different sequences and methods from time to time, but end up coming back to what I find most efficient. As with many shop procedures, picking up and setting down tools can add greatly to the amount of time required to complete a job. Same with tuning -- pulling and inserting those mutes adds up. <br>
I'm convinced that hammer technique -- ability to set the pin and make it stay -- is way more important than the sequence used in tuning or whether one uses felt strips or rubber mutes. (This is <i>after </i>the pitch raise I'm talking about.)<br>
--David Nereson, RPT <br><br> <br></div>