<HTML>In a message dated 12/27/00 8:06:36 AM Central Standard Time, pianola@online.no (Johan Ola Andersson) writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">My EPD (Electronic Pitchraising Device)</BLOCKQUOTE> Thanks a lot for your support, Ola.  It is for people like you that I take the time and trouble to write.  It seems that those who have accused me of "attacking" someone in virtually every one of my posts have quite a skewed perception of the way things really are.  I have only responded, and with what I believe to be a great deal of restraint to insults, put downs, teasing and the like which have been directed at me. Of course, it may be seen as the virtuous thing to do to take the abuse silently, without response but who ever said I was virtuous?  I'd rather point out the phony baloney when I see it and I've seen plenty.  Sometimes, absurdity is best illustrated with absurdity itself.  The person who wrote, "those of us who knew him and worked with him" makes a career out of wanting you to believe he is the greatest piano tuner to have ever lived.  He often quotes lofty passages from obscure sources in an attempt to make you see what volumes of knowledge aren't yet in your head. I certainly don't mind if he has a contribution to make but when I see the baloney pop up and recognize it for what it is, I see it as fair game.  He has had his chance at ridiculing me right on the List by writing the usual thing, something that makes it sound like he knows what he's doing and talking about to most people perhaps but when I saw what he wrote, I could only think what a fool he was making of himself.  Once I pointed it out, he stopped the baloney until yesterday. There is another frequent contributor who right on this List said that my tuning sounded like a "disaster, like a car crash or burning building".  Of course, he felt that he had the right to say that and that he was *correct* in his assessment and the other figures he drew out of thin air but offered as fact.  There was no criticism of him for his harsh words, of course but when I responded with a worthy characterization, all hell broke loose and accusations as far flung as racism raged on for weeks.  It's all been great fun.  If you upset the "pecking order" that has been established here by rattling the cage, the squabble and the squawking become hysterical. Don't worry about my feelings, Ola, I enjoy reading and contributing to Pianotech.  There are some 366 subscribers and others who participate in other ways besides being direct subscribers.  Yet, how many names do you see that answer nearly every thread?  When I signed on the Pianotech 3 years ago, there was a small clique of people who virtually controlled all content.   Most posts were worthless. While some of those people no longer contribute, two of them have written posts in the last two days that directly contradict what they are complaining about.  The blatant hypocrisy is downright comical.  I'd rather see some questions and comments from some of the other scores of people who subscribe but are too terrified to write anything for fear of reprisal from these few who think they must control all thought processes. Having addressed that, your post about your "EPD" calls for a comment.  I see that it works for you and I see nothing wrong with it.  However, I can also see that it means that you still don't trust or have confidence in your own ears.  Tuning is nothing more than a process of controlling beats.  In a pitch raise, you have deliberately set your starting note to a calculated number of beats sharp to the fork. Your EPD can serve to teach you what 30% sounds like but it is really a simple matter.  For every 3 beats flat, you tune one beat sharp.  When tuning your octaves in a pitch raise, you simply learn to tune what sound like "tempered" octaves.  That is, slow, controlled stretching of the octaves that will compensate for what George Defebaugh called the "anticipated drop". When I read of you using the EPD, I recall watching my younger sister learning to ride her bicycle.  She had a set of what were called "training wheels" attached to the rear wheel of her bicycle that would keep her upright and prevent her from falling.  There was a day when my father was watching her ride and noticed that those training wheels never touched the ground anymore.  He removed them and my sister rode around freely without falling. I am confident that you will soon learn that you don't need the visual device at all, that you will learn to hear pitches and beats and be able to tune entirely by ear.  It will be a great sense of satisfaction when you can.   Indeed, if you are tuning a piano which is very severely off pitch, it may be so far off that it will not register on any visual device.  This is where you musical sense of pitch must take over. Keep up the good and hard work. Bill Bremmer RPT Madison, Wisconsin</HTML>