True or False

[David Porritt]

On Fri, 26 Jul 1996, Barrie Heaton wrote:

> There has been a growing debate in some of the trade magazines in the
> UK. Regarding the accuracy of electronic tuners.  Could the list
> possibly clear up some of the points raised in these discussions as a
> lot of wild claims have been made for and against, I personally know
> nothing about the product,  in fact I go as far as to say I wouldn't
> recongnise one if I fell over it.
>
> 1. The acaccu-tuner only achieves an accuracy of 95 per cent in
> laboratory conditions.  is this true?

No.  The accutuner is quite accurate, naturally it depends on what kind
of tuning you put in memory, as to how good the result will be.  The
FAC (the automated tuning generator) will create a tuning that is quite
good.  The consistency from tuning to tuning is very good.  In my
oppinion it is THE way to tune two same-scale pianos together.

> 2. The PTG uses the accu-tuner to test all of its perspective members
> wishing to join.


The PTG uses the accutuner to test all members wanting to become
Registered Piano Technicians.  First, a committee of 3 RPTs - one of
which has to be a Certified Tuning Examiner - tunes a piano until the
three RPTs agree that the piano is tuned as well as it can be.  (It
must be a grand piano 5'9" or larger with no obvious scaling
problems.)  When the 3 RPTs agree that it is tuned as well as possible,
the "master tuning" is recorded on an accutuner.  When a candidate
wants to take the test to become an RPT he/she tunes the piano and
their tuning is compared to the "master tuning" done by the committee.
Each area of the piano must be within certain perameters - some areas
as close as 1 cent.  If any notes are outside these perameters, the
committee will aurally verify the descrepancy.

The accutuner is not used as the hand of God, but as an objective guide.

I hope this helps.

dave
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David M. Porritt, RPT
Meadows School of the Arts
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, Texas
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