Hi All I am laughing as I write this so don't take it too seriously. I use a steel tuning fork from Schaff with a long stem so it is easy to hold. I usually put it in my teeth to listen but sometimes hold it to the bottom of the piano. I tune the fork from time to time and check it a couple times a year or after I drop it. It is a steel fork and will vary with temperature just like pianos do. The most I have ever been able to vary the pitch of the fork is about one beat per second. That's the difference between a cold fork and a warm fork. So if the fork is cool it is close enough although I am aware that it changes a few cents when I handle it to use it. The point I wanted to make is that pianos will change pitch and are not accurate either. You can set pitch with anything you like but as soon as the temperature changes the pitch of the piano will change with it. Some examples of conditions that I deal with. Tuning a piano off stage and then moving it on stage under lights. The closet that the piano is kept in is not the same temperature as the stage area. Any change in the weather and the building will change too. Or the only time to tune the piano is very early in the morning and at that time the air conditioning is shut down to save money and the hall is warmer than it will be in the day time when the air is back on. So what does one do? You have to use your own judgement. Your own judgement will be needed no matter which source of pitch you use whether fork or electronic. You will have to decide if you change pitch or let the pitch alone even if it is not at A440, keeping in mind what pitch you want to maintain. Anyway enough said for now. I am enclosing part of a letter I sent to Ron Berry for your amusement. ------------------------------------------------------------ | Phil Sloffer Ph (812) 339-1831 Depart not from the | | IU (812) 855-1244 path which fate has | | psloffer@indiana.edu you assigned. | | phillip149@aol.com from a fortune cookie | ------------------------------------------------------------ The following is an extract from a letter to Ron Berry from Phil Sloffer written sometime in June 1994. Hi Ron Just finished tuning a piano and entered it in my tuning log and thought I would drop you a note. We all keep chugging along down here in our own little world as if nothing else matters. We have a computer in the shop which all of us use. We keep track of piano inventory on this machine and use it for email and do a little word processing. Mostly memos but a little letter writing too. We also got an Accu-tuner for the shop. All of us have tried it but know body uses it. Once in a while something comes up and it is nice to have it. Just this week-end I was tuning a forte-piano in the MAC for a recording. They wanted it tuned at A430. I have an A427.5 fork that I made for tuning John Eaton 1/4 tone pianos. I usually use that fork and count 2 and 1/2 beat sharp to get A430. Well night before last I loaned that fork to Steve so he could tune and then yesterday evening when I came in to tune I realized Steve still had my fork. I paged him and he was at the movies with his kids and my fork was at his house. So I grabbed the Accu-tuner and............ At this point I should mention that it never occurred to me to use this machine to tune the forte-piano. In fact I did not think of that until I had gone home. ..................and I turned it on. I took an extra fork I had in my desk and put it in the vice and went to work on it with a file. I filed the fork and checked it with the Accu-tuner until I had made my fork 40 cents flat i.e. A430 Hz. I then proceeded to the MAC stage and tuned the forte-piano. They checked the pitch of the piano and also my fork and said it was perfect. You are laughing now suppose. It really never occurred to me to take the Accu-tuner over and set the pitch from that. All I could think of was that I needed a tuning fork and it had to be A430 which is 40 cents flat and with the help of the Accu-tuner I was able to make the fork I needed. Oh well. Well I have things to do and you do too so I will end this little story and we can all get back to other things. Later, Phil
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