<HTML>In a message dated 10/18/2002 3:31:33 PM Central Daylight Time, pianotech-request@ptg.org writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">In regard to this I would like to repeat what  I wrote before  : A perfect electronic tuning device will give you the perfect pitch for every note to be tuned.  The tuning offered us through this perfect tuning device is exactly what about 99.9 % of all - piano - tuners in the world are striving for and It gives us the blissful quick answer to a very complicated Chinese puzzle. I think it is necessary for every tuning apprentice / student / professional to first tune thousands of pianos aurally in order to get trained properly, develop a tuning 'ear' and so know by instinct how to make a decent tuning. In that case, when the battery of the ETD is low he/she can continue solving the Chinese puzzle. To make a - really - perfect tuning aurally, in one hour, is virtually impossible. For that we need a perfect tuning machine, and they now exist. To make a - really - perfect tuning aurally costs a lot of time, at least hours, and takes very much concentration and energy. Many of us know this, and they also know that after four of these 'perfect' concert tunings we are ready for 'home', and almost total loss. If that's what you want, that's fine with me because I too know what it means. That's why I chose for the perfect ETD and let that machine calculate the perfected pitch. Of each unison I tune the middle string according to what the ETD tells me. Than I shut off my 'magic box' and the 'artistic' or 'ear work' starts : I tune the remaining strings and make the best tone possible by listening with my musical ear and thereby choosing the right moment where the unison is at its most beautiful. Every tuner. every human being, has a different interpretation of 'tone', or color and therefor every tuner will create a different 'tone' on the same instrument. This is something an ETD can not do for us and that is the mistake ETD antagonists make, they think the ETD replaces the ear! but that is not the case. The very smart ETD is a very smart short cut to the 'right' pitch, and no more. The ear chooses the personal moment of beauty, based on personal musicality and musical experience in general. friendly greetings from Antares, Amsterdam, Holland </BLOCKQUOTE> Excellent, excellent, EXCELLENT!  (No apology for shouting!)  This is THE most cogent, intelligent statement I've yet seen concerning the subject (yet hotly debated) of ETD use. Thank you, Andre, thank you! Stan Ryberg Barrington IL Associate Member mailto:jstan40@aol.com</HTML>