SAT Use

[harvey]

Bill, just a few responses (as opposed to answers),

* If I recall, F5 is about the area that some SOT's are sensitive to
hearing on some pianos/scales. This phenomenon was discussed briefly on
this list. Sometimes changing position helps, sometimes a magnetic pickup
helps, but sometimes tuning aurally until the SOT can hear again is the
fastest work-around. However, If you're referring to the attack pitch (via
lights) instead of the post-attack (settled) pitch, follow your aural
judgements while watching the SOT to maintain consistency.

* Call it being picky if you like, but I prefer to think you've "arrived at
another plateau". If you're like me, the SOT has discretely made you a
better aural tuner than before. I always use the SOT, but always perform
traditional (often non-traditional) checks aurally. In a contest, my
judgement wins (doesn't mean it's right, just that I'm in control).

* If you are going to fudge in higher octaves, fudge in the direction of
the lights slowly spinning clockwise. Use aural skills for comparison, but
use the SOT to keep yourself honest. As our high-freq hearing becomes, um,
questionable with age, this is one of the areas where the SOT proves
worthwhile. (One of my clients thanked me for putting the last half-octave
back on the piano that another tuner had "removed").

* I was an advocate of full-piano strip muting (even made a set for George
D.). I then attended a class where Doc Sanderson was supporting the
one-string-at-a-time, bottom to top sequence. It's been a while since that
class, but I think the theory involved bridge roll and spreading tension
equally. The thing that stuck in my mind was that of less doubling back for
corrections, and/or, the ability to hear the need for doubling back "on the
fly" as various intervals were aurally checked (all previous unisons are
now open, obviously). I didn't believe it but tried it anyway, and am now a
convert. I no longer use any strip mutes, and find myself making fewer
corrections to previously tuned strings. I still carry strips in case the
SOT dies. Incidentally, the SOT only dies on important venues, not
klunkers. (I don't know how Doc engineered that selective capability into
the machine.)

At 11:19 PM 8/11/99 -0400, you wrote:
>List -
>
>I've been using an SAT since February (SAT III since June) after tuning 
>aurally about 45 years.  I have a few questions that I don't recall being 
>discussed on this list in the years I have been on (but then, I miss a lot 
>because I don't have time to keep up with reading all the posts).
[cut]


Jim Harvey, RPT
Greenwood, SC
harvey@greenwood.net
________________________
Tuning is a means to an end
              -- Harvey (date unknown)