Accu-True or False

[Jim]

To the List:

One of the the greatest things that I enjoyed at the PTG Convention was
the comparison of tunings between Virgil Smith's and mine.  Both of us
taught Tuning classes.  We each attended the other's class and we played
each other's pianos.

For just a little background now.  Virgil contends that the ears which
God has given us are marvelous and are able to take all of the
partials of a note and mold them into a single sound which gives one
more accuracy in tuning because there is more information available.
Whereas the machines listen to only one partial at a time.  I contend
that the machine expertly used can produce more consistent results.

The Chicago and Waukegan Chapters are having a joint meeting in Oct 15
where Virgil will tune one piano strictly aurally and I will tune another
identical piano strictly with machine.  This will be a double blind test
where neither of us nor the audience of piano technicians will know which
piano was tuned by which method.  We will fill out our score cards as each
selection is played.  I don't expect to find more than a 40-60 split in
the voting.  We are calling this the "the Tune-off at Chicago", kind of
like the old movie "Shoot out at the OK Coral."  It will certainly be
interesting to see how this goes.

Here was the most fun part at the Convention for me.  When Virgil came in
and played my tuning, his comment was:  "why this sounds like my tuning."

The main point I was trying to make in my class was that Unisons are
the most important thing you will ever do.  My unisons were all tuned
exclusively using the machine on each string.  Frankly, I tho't it sounded
great.  I was so pleased with his comment because Virgil is one of the
best tuners I know and he is a close personal friend.  We should have a
great time in Chicago.  Y'all come.

Jim Coleman, Sr. Tempe, AZ, USA