warning! long. Multiple pianos and pitchraising

[Jim Coleman, Sr.]

For those few who are interested:

Yesterday I received an emergency call. The Phoenix Music Teachers were
having a concert in a large auditorium (approx 1500 seats). Eleven Pianos 
were delivered (supposedly tuned). During morning rehearsal it was 
discovered that the pianos did not go together at all. The clavinovas were
OK, but the 11 acoustical pianos mostly had poor unisons and one was below
pitch by 38.7 cents. Being the rescuerer that I am (codependant is the
technical term), and "feeling their pain", I recruited my son Phil to 
help me tune the 11 pianos between 2 PM and 6PM. This meant that each of
us did 5 pianos, but Phil got the one that was 38 cents flat. I asked him
to do a 5 min pitch raise before pretending to tune that one (ok, I relented
and allowed him 10 minutes). He made it with a little to spare. I was
luckier, I only had one piano that was about 10 cents flat. I used the new
pitch raise facility of the new SAT III and did it in one pass. I tuned 
the Bass last as usual and it didn't need much change at all.

Today I called one of the teachers who was there for the concert to see how
things went. She used terms like: "You saved our lives" and "we so 
appreciate what you did" "they all sounded so together", etc.

I know this all sounds very self serving, but the reason is to go to the
technical aspects of it.

Since the pitch of all the pianos was all over the map, a decision had to
be made early on. The weirdest scaling was on the Wurlitzer piano (the one
with many wound strings in the Tenor section (which starts at B2). Normally
I would tune this piano using the F4 Stretch number and pigtail the treble
and Bass to that 3 1/2 octave temperament. This is one of the few pianos for
which I wouldn't normally use the FAC tuning. However, I needed a single
program to which all of the pianos would be tuned. Phil's AccuTuner was
the model I, I couldn't use the Double Octave Beat Control of my SAT III,
so, I took the measurements of the inharmonicity of F3=27.2 (truncated 
to 20.0), A4=9.5, and C6=8.7. Normally, that truncating which the SAT does
with the high F3 values would bother me, but in this case with other pianos
being tuned to this same program, I was glad to use the 20.0 number.

There were several decidedly different pianos. Two kinds of Wurlitzer 
consoles, 3 Lindenauer (made by Kimball) consoles, 2 Samick consoles (the 
best of the bunch) 3 kinds of Kawai consoles (502's, 503's, 504's). Normally
for a situation like this, I would measure FACs for each of the pianos and
strike an average to which all the pianos would be tuned. We didn't have the
time for this, so a judgment had to made quickly. By using the Wurlitzer
as the standard, this meant that the Bass on all the other pianos would be
tuned too low, and the treble would be tuned too high. The ensemble effect
however was the saving factor here. As you recall, in a Symphony, you will
hear 30 violins playing the same melody and it will sound beautiful, clean
and in tune. When you consider that they cannot possibly be all using the
same vibrato rate, be absolutely in phase, and at the same time be 
absolutely in tune, there is a melding (or is it melting) of tone which 
gives us the impression that they are playing a warm intune sound (we 
don't even notice the vibrato).

Since Phil and I did 11 pianos within the 4 hour alloted time, this 
averages 43.6 minutes for each piano. Admittedly these tunings were not
the kind we would be proud of. We might even be embarrassed to listen to
them in the presence of another tuner. We could easily pick them to pieces 
if we listened to them individually. We would probably conclude that each of
these really needs a good tuning still. However, the ensemble effect has
saved us in this situation.

I do not think that situations like this should exist. Those who plan these
gala affairs should plan time for the tuners. Those who rent and tune for
these affairs should plan ahead and work their plan. A technician has every
right to walk away from being involved in a pressure attack like this.
On the other hand, there may be times in your future where you may be called
upon to rescue the perishing and care for the dying. If you are a compulsive
rescuer and find satisfaction in this, you may also find some direction from
this article in how to approach the situation.

Jim Coleman, Sr.