Accuholism- New machine for TunerJeff (gasp!)

[Kenneth W. Burton]

	Steve,

	I have been making and using a DoubleMute which applies the
pattern you suggested to uprights. It is a wire fork with two rubber
wedges which have a width of 1/4 inch.

	You can make one yourself or, if you prefer, I have them available
for $10.00 plus S&H.

	Ken Burton, "Doctor Piano" Calgary Alberta

On Wed, 1 Jan 1997, Stephen F Schell wrote:

>
> Dear Phil and List,
>
>
>
> Here's my usual tuning routine for grands: install a strip mute in the bass (and tenor, if there are wound unisons). If working from a stored memory tuning, tune one string per note from A0 up to the first plain wire unison.

>
>
>
>
>       To tune in the plain wire sections, working from left to right, use
> two rubber grand wedge mutes. Install them on either side of the first unison, which mutes the outside strings. Tune the center string, then move
> the left mute between the center and right strings. Tune the left
> string, then move the right mute over a complete unison and move the
> left mute between the left and center strings. Tune the right string,
> then pull the left mute and listen to the open unison. If it is not
> really clean something has moved; most likely the center string has gone
> a bit flat from all the pounding and commotion. Retune as necessary then
> install the left mute to the right of the right string of the unison you
> just tuned, which now has the mutes ready for you to tune the center string of the next unison. Continue in a similar fashion to note 88, then
> pull the strip and tune the wound string unisons aurally. Phew. This
> very simple procedure just took more words to describe than I would have
> thought possible!
>
>                                                One needs to be careful not to jam the mutes in with force, as damage will occur to the damper
> felts, especially in the trichord section. I generally just set them in
> place and let gravity settle them in as the notes are played.
>
>
>                                                        To maximize stability, I generally strike a hard settling blow, followed immediately by a soft blow to observe the display on the SAT. I'm looking for a stable pattern that doesn't start drifting fl
at
>
> , although it may drift sharp one
> LED's worth then drift back and stabilize. The string should withstand
> another hard blow or two without moving, and if I am confident of it's
> stability, I move on to the next string. One lesson learned from fussy
> unison tuning with the machine, though, is that there is really no such thing as stability in an absolute sense. If you hit a string hard enough,
> long enough, it will move, so we shouldn't torture ourselves.
>
>
>                                                                     One
> step which pays dividends is to tap the strings to the bridge before
> tuning. At a minimum, I tap the strings on the speaking length side from
> where the tenor bridge emerges from under the bass bridge on up to note
> 88. This cleans up the sound, lessening false beats and making unison purity much easier to attain.
>
>                                                               I haven't
> figured out a way to mute a vertical to tune single strings with speed
> and efficiency, as the mutes are difficult to put in place, fall out frequently, etc. Does anyone have a method that works well?
>
>
>
> Steve Schell
>
> stfrsc@juno.com
>
>
> On Wed, 01 Jan 1997 12:14:34 -0500 pjames@gzinc.com (Ryan, Philip) writes:
> >Dear Steve,
> >
> >Enjoyed your comments to TunerJeff on his case of accuholism.  Agree
> >with your kindly and well-choosed words to accutuners like myself.  I
> >have always tuned unison on plain wire strings by ear, but would like
> >to
> >follow your advice on individual string unisons.  My question is how
> >do
> >you mute the side strings efficiently when tuning each string by
> >itself?
> >Any advice?
> >
> >Thanks,
> >Phil Ryan
> >Associate, PTG
> >
> >Stephen F Schell wrote:
> >>
> >> Dear Jeff and List,
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Congratulations on Santa's thoughtful baby blue gift! I'm sure that
> >you
> >> will find that, over time, that it is truly "the gift that keeps on
> >> giving". I really enjoyed your comments, as many of them rang true
> >and
> >> are probably almost universal.
> >>
> >>                                                      I agree with
> >your
> >> comments about the high quality unisons possible with the SAT. I
> >have
> >> been tuning all plain wire unisons one string at a time for about
> >five
> >> years now. You seem worried about achieving good stability. I think
> >that
> >> , with practice, your stability may actually improve. Mine sure has.
> >You
> >> can blast away on that single string until you are confident that it
> >is
> >> stable, and at the pitch you intended for it, not the pitch the
> >> reference string has drifted to while you were tuning the unison. I
> >> still tune all wound string unisons by ear, however. These unisons
> >> generally have much more disagreement among the different partial
> >levels
> >> than plain wire unisons, and as you said, the SAT can only listen to
> >one
> >> partial at a time.
> >>            Enjoy your new SAT, TunerJeff, and please let us know how
> >> things work out.
> >>
> >>                                          Steve Schell
> >>
> >>                                      stfrsc@juno.com
> >>
> >
>