Chris and David, Years ago I had a 9' Chickering in a church and they wanted me to tune their upright Baldwin with it and do a concert. I did. I tuned the upright to the SAT for the 9'. After the concert the upright went back to it's room and sounded amazing... (bad) Aren't we in a fun business? Jim From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Christopher Purdy Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2010 8:42 PM To: David Ilvedson; caut at ptg.org Subject: Re: [CAUT] Too tall!!?? I agree. I think each piano has it's own "personality". I tune both pianos separately and allow them to have their own voice. Chris On Apr 7, 2010, at 10:32 PM, David Ilvedson wrote: I tune each piano as best I can and don't worry about it. In my opinion, any slight differences between notes will add to the quality of sound. Imagine if a string section was absolutely playing the same pitches (not likely... '-])...IMHO. David Ilvedson, RPT Pacifica, CA 94044 ----- Original message ---------------------------------------- From: "Susan Kline" <skline at peak.org<mailto:skline at peak.org>> To: caut at ptg.org<mailto:caut at ptg.org> Received: 4/7/2010 6:32:49 PM Subject: Re: [CAUT] Too tall!!?? Also, on another note; How do you all like to tune two pianos together? One venue has a Baldwin D and Steinway D together, the other venue has a Steinway D and B to be tuned together on Friday (UGH!) I've done my usual for the 2 9'-ers but; Any tips on the 9' and 7' together would be great help. I've never been happy with those two pianos together, but that's my only choice. What I like to do is to pick the better of the two pianos, call it the "master" and then roll them so I can reach both keyboards at once. Sometimes both facing each other with just room for me in between, sometimes at an acute angle to each other. Part way through I shift one so I can reach the upper or the lower register of both at once, as may be. I put the tuning on the "master", and then I set the A and tune the temperament on the lesser, then check it note by note against the "master", then move outward, checking now and then. When the lesser piano doesn't quite want the same pitch (tenor and bass, if the two are different lengths), I just make it give in, and keep the unisons between the two dead on with each other. When I'm finished, I check note by note, the entire scale. I've been very pleased by the results from doing this. If I can't move one of the pianos so I can play both at once, I set the A's as carefully as possible, and tune them separately as best I can, but the results are usually only acceptable, not pleasing to me. Newport's SD-10 and Steinway D are never happier than when nested together, with the lid off the Baldwin. They suddenly are best buds, in spite of being different, and both gather resonance from each other, partly, I think, because the entire scale is exactly the same on both. You can really tell how you're doing when a two piano piece has both instruments exactly doubling each other, as happens now and then. If it sounds like the unisons are as good as if it were just one piano, you've aced it. ("and we are unanimous in that!") Susan Kline Newport Arts Center, Oregon State University Christopher D. Purdy R.P.T. Registered Piano Technician School of Music, Ohio University Rm. 311, Robt. Glidden Hall Athens, OH 45701 Office (740) 593-1656 Cell (740) 590-3842 fax (740) 593-1429 http://www.ohiou.edu/music -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20100408/5d079a6f/attachment-0001.htm>
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC