<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Re: one rubber mute</TITLE></HEAD> <BODY> <BLOCKQUOTE> Is "extremely slightly" anything like "jumbo= shrimp"?   ;-] Speaking for myself, I always tune "extremely= slightly" when the pitch is "extremely slightly" within= tune.  I don't see how tuning with one mute makes any= difference in the minute changes of pitch we try to make when= tuning...guess we'll all have to see/hear for ourselves= someday.   Possibly it is simply the idea of unisons= as you go?   I do tune unisons as I go but I have= opted for 2 mutes.   David I.   ----- Original message= ----------------------------------------> From: David= Andersen <<A= href="mailto:bigda@gte.net">bigda@gte.net</A>> To:= Pianotech <<A= href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A>> Rec= eived: Fri, 05 Nov 2004 20:42:34 -0800 Subject: Re: one rubber= mute >We are still waiting for an explanation of= "shimming" unisons. </BLOCKQUOTE><FONT= face=Verdana> Shimming, or= “cracking” unisons, is something Virgil Smith has talked about= for many years.  I’ve also had an in-depth conversation= about it with Eric Schandall, a true wizard from the Steinway= basement---he uses it every time he tunes. Shimming is= changing the pitch extremely slightly of the right string of a= unison, and then bringing the other two strings in unison with= the right. With some practice, your temperament becomes super,= super precise; more than you thought possible. The possibility= of executing super small pitch moves to idealize your= temperament has been a very powerful focusing device for me;= it’s allowed me to make what I call an ideal temperament for= that piano in between 20 and 30 minutes---and the temperament is= SOCKED in solid. >From it, you can trust without= reservation that you’re replicating the note relationships= within the temperament over the entire compass of the= piano---with the proper stretch, of course.  In my system,= following those slowly rolling fourths down to A0 is my= automatic stretch calculator in the bass; after A5 or so, I= switch from checking with fourths to checking with double and= triple octaves, and sometimes with 11ths and 18ths, which should= act like fourths---slowly rolling. I WILL send a version= of my tuning pattern and protocol; I wrote it back 3-4 months= ago, and then Virgil had an article in the Journal, and I guess= I felt intimidated---but what the heck; I’ll send it= soon---after some more little editing and tweaking. My= best to all, David Andersen </BODY></HTML>