At 05:55 PM 1/6/98 -0600, you wrote: >List, > > I've decided to seriously try and get my *boss* to let me buy an SAT. >What I need is as much ammunition as possible as to ways that it would >benefit the university/School of Music, as well as ways it would help me >to do my job better/quicker/easier. Here are a few things I can think of: Hi. At the risk of making a fool of myself here (I'm going to assume that an "SAT" refers to a new model of strobe tuner.) I would heartily agree that an electronic tuner of any kind makes a great deal of sense. As a pipe organ builder I have to tune organs at all different pitchs and temperments (a420 + - 60%) depending on the time of year and temperature. For 20+ years I have been using a Peterson model 320 audio tuner to set the tuning ranks. ( On Pipe organs pitch is dependent on temperature as much as humidity is on pianos - actually they act more more like Harpsichords they never stay in any kind of tune). This poor old thing has been droppped more times than I can remember and has been kicking around in my trunk every day for years in all kinds of weather. It is still in perfect working order. In pipe organ work an Audio tuner is much more versatile than a Strobe tuner as the person tuning must look at the pipes while they are tuning. Attempting to look at a strobe and tuning organ pipes while hanging by one's teeth in an organ chamber is not an easy thing to do. In the limited piano work that I have done I have found the tuner to be invaluable. As a suggestion to all those who would like to purchase such a device, I can only suggest that if you are buying something to use every day. Always buy the best machine that you can afford. You will never regret the money spent. My only regret is that my machine won't wear out and thus I can't justify the need to buy a new fancy one with all the bells dials temperments and whistles and a nice strobe so I can hear those upper notes and harmonics that are getting harder to hear every year. If your boss won't buy you one ( and even the most expensive Peterson model [http://www.peterson.com] is far less than an ordinary grand piano) buy one for yourself. In most countries you can write off the cost as a business deduction. (especially if you do free lance work outside of your full time job.) There are many different machines out there on the market from very cheap ones for tuning guitars to expensive benchtop lab models with frequency generators, digital readouts and fancy scales etc. . The best argument you could make is to tell your boss that you required several thousand tuning forks to give you an exact pitch for every note. You still have to do the tuning on your own. The tuner just makes things a lot easier. That's all a tuner is - a fancy tuning fork. As a recent newbie to this list I don't know if tuners have been discussed to death or not. If not could those who have one to talk about their preferences? Nelson E. Denton R. A. Denton and Son Pipe Organ Builders Hamilton Ontario Canada http://www.freeyellow.com/members/radentonson
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