<html> <body> At 10:22 AM 7/21/05, you wrote: Michael, IMO, that has nothing at all to do with the fact that he used a temp. strip! Avery <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">He used a felt strip and I cringed - yes... cringed.... as he poked the felt between the strings to lay the bearings. I am very glad ears were invented :-) Incidentally when he got to the top all h*ll broke loose. He - had - no - idea... how to get the top strings right - and that was after a three year course..... How do those postal courses work if there's no-one to monitor your results? I'm baffled. Yes... baffled. ;-) Regards from a beautiful, hot, sunny day in Sussex where there's a "Hosepipe Ban!" now in force. Our reservoirs are running low. Michael G.(UK) (baffled) <dl> <dd>----- Original Message ----- <dd>From: <a href="mailto:mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com">Farrell</a> <dd>To: <a href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">Pianotech</a> <dd>Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2005 1:23 PM <dd>Subject: Re: Moving from Uprights to Grands <dd>"It has always been looked down upon in the profession here if a tuner still has to use a temperament strip..." <dd>  <dd>What kind of an environment is it where other piano technicians watch what another piano technician does during a tuning? I don't think any tech has ever watched me tune a piano, and only once have I watched someone else tune a piano. <dd>  <dd>Oh, maybe another tech saw me tune years ago when I was doing some floor tunings at a dealer. <dd>  <dd>Terry Farrell <dl> <dd>----- Original Message ----- <dd>From: <a href="mailto:Byeway222@aol.com">Byeway222@aol.com</a> <dd>  <dd>The whole business of strip muting for either the temperament octave or even into the further reaches of the piano has alway been controversial here in UK.  Probably like Michael I was trained very traditionally, to discard the strip mute quite early on and rely on one's ear for laying the temperament with just two wedges.  It has always been looked down upon in the profession here if a tuner still has to use a temperament strip, almost suggesting that his/her ear is not reliable enough to do without it.  The analogy being a baby's walking frame I suppose!   Because  of this early influence I can actually feel 'ashamed' if I resort to using  a strip or rubber gang mute on a difficult piano. Do i need psychoanalysis?  However, I could actually argue pretty stongly in favour of using them with very small grands and uprights where inharmonicity is so pronounced that setting an acceptable temperament can take more than one pass, and using this aid would be quicker.  When this topic comes under discussion over here it is generally argued that the temperament is not exactly the same when you return to complete the unisons and that the whole excercise can be more time consuming. <dd>It would be interesting to know what proportion of tuners is 'mute free' <dd>Ric </dl> </dl></blockquote></body> </html>