<HTML>Speaking of false beats, = I had yet another interesting tuning job today.  They come in droves, d= on't they?   One of the stores I contract for loaned a new Seiler 180 grand--the one = with the titanium case and the plexiglass lid, not to mention full on midi/e= lectro capablities--to a pianist for a gig in a local mall.  After bein= g forced to park nearly half a mile away, I lugged my tools around until I f= ound an open door at 8 AM.  Fortunately, the Nordstrom and Macy's custo= mers would not begin arriving until nearly 10 AM, so I figured I'd have a ch= ance to crank this one out quickly. Tuning in a mall would be like tuning in a cave if it weren't for the mu= sic piped in at about 90 decibels(my favorite was the cover of Lionel Ritchi= e's "All Night Long":-).  For the 20/40 cent pitch raze, I didn't even = bother using my ears much.  I did, however, say many silent thank yous = to Robert Scott for inventing TuneLab.   Finished the pitch raise, and still couldn't find a security guard to he= lp me turn off the blasted music.  I fine tune aurally most of  th= e time, but once again, I was glad to have Tunelab on hand.  It was imp= ossible to hear some notes correctly.   A couple of guards finally walked by, and within seconds, they contacted= the office and the music was off in my quadrant of the mall.  Whew. &n= bsp;While tuning, I got the occasional glance from Starbuck's patrons, and a= few passers-by asked "how much is this baby?"  They moved on rather qu= ickly when I quoted them the 125k list price, roughly twice what the beemer = down the row was going for. Tuning in a mall is weird.  You hit a note, and it echos back to yo= u a fraction of a second later, so it really sounds like a beat.  Happi= ly, the piano only had false beats near the treble plate struts.  Other= wise, I'd probably still be there trying to tune out that nice little "extra= vibrato".  When I finally finished, it was kind of fun to sit there an= d crank out "There will Never Be Another You" on a really nice piano in a ma= ssive man-made cavern. In talking with the artist, Mr. Scott Davis, I found out that he does th= is every weekend and he sells many CDs that way.   New Age piano players in a mall...only in America!   Dave Stahl Promote Harmony in the Universe--Tune Your Piano! In a message dated 8/30/03 9:23:14 AM Pacific Daylight Time, tune4u@eart= hlink.net writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-= LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">David's post on the amazing= ly stable Kawai grand triggered this post--specifically that it had high tre= ble false beats in an acustically live room. I recently tuned a 60's era spinet that was way out of wack. The custome= r wanted to know if it was a "keeper" or whether she should start saving for= a new piano. Ignoring the obvious and prejudicial answer, I said that we'd = have to see how it sounds after repairs and tuning. After bridge repairs, two new strings, a 120+ cent pitch raise and two t= uning passes, it sounded amazingly not-so-bad. I told her so and she agreed.= As the discussion was rather in depth and she wanted me to be frank--Frank = Who? one might ask--I did point out that there were false beats in the upper= treble. She asked me to demonstrate, and I did. This was her reaction: "Well, that's just a bonus: extra vibrato." So you see, we should have been promoting the positive side of this phen= omenon all along! Alan R. Barnard Salem, MO </BLOCKQUOTE> </HTML>