Conservative Octaves?

[David ilvedson]

> Date:          Tue, 17 Jun 1997 17:19:23 +0000
> From:          Arnold Duin <aduin@EURONET.NL>
> Subject:       Re: Conservative Octaves?
> To:            pianotech@byu.edu, pianotech listserv <pianotech@byu.edu>
> Reply-to:      pianotech@ptg.org

Arnold,

Now a good experiment would be to take someone with no 
experience in piano tuning and give him instructions on how to 
use a Accutuner.  Give him the tools needed and see what he 
could do...I doubt if he'd finish the job...probably go running 
out into the streets yelling "torture, torture".  But if he did 
finish there is little doubt that it wouldn't stay in tune.  
Hammer technique is the hardest part of piano tuning, IMHO.  
There have always been books on "Piano Tuning".  And the public 
has always dabbled in our work.  A tuning folk and temperment
setting usually drove most of them, but some got interested and 
kept at it and became piano tuners.  The advent of the SAT's 
will make it a little easier for those interested but at the 
cost of a SAT certainly not save them any money.  I think once 
again those with a real interest in the this work will continue 
to keep at it but most run screaming

David ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, CA.
> Subject:     Re: Conservative Octaves?
> Sent:        22-10-1996 01:25
> To:          pianotech@byu.edu
>              pianotech listserv, pianotech@byu.edu
> 
> you wrote
> >several sources that tuning machines in general are much less accepted in
> >Europe than they are in the USA. Could some European tuners comment on
> >whether this perception is accurate, and why or why not?
> Back in 1981 I heard of a guy, Willem van Beekum who tuned piano's with 
> the aid of a electronic device. When we met he demonstrated the apparatus 
> to me, a Conn stroboscop. As an editor of the Dutch trade union 
> periodical we asked him to write a article about it. Later he also wrote 
> articles about the small Yamaha PT 4 and  1988 the last article about the 
> Yamaha PT 100. We received a lot of negative reactions from our readers: 
> you couldn't beat the human ear. Another thing of course was that they 
> were afraid that the customers now would be able to tune their own piano
> 
>