Last octave/stretching, etc.

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
In a message dated 12/15/00 8:31:02 AM Central Standard Time, A440A@AOL.COM
 writes:


> << I punched up the octave stretch so that the last note was 20
> cents sharper than a straight FAC tuning.  NOBODY noticed!!!!!
> 
> Dave asks: 
> >>Where did C8 end up?  
> 
> It ended up 55 cents sharp, as opposed to the 35 cents I normally see on 
> the 
> SAT. 
> 
> And was also asked: 
> >>You mean to tell me that you tuned the whole octave sharp?  Gradually, I
> assume. And nobody noticed?
> 
> Yes,  that is right. 
> 
> >>    They must have not said anything because they held you in such high
> esteem, but secretly, they're probably whispering " I think he's starting to
> lose it" after you left.>>
> 
> No,  when a tech charges enough, nobody whispers.  This was in a 
> performance 
> environment, (Vanderbilt stage).  I had been asked to make the top end 
> "brilliant" for a certain faculty recital, so I stretched it up in the last 
> octave.  I left it there for the next three days, through continual use by 
> a 
> wide variety of pianists.  
>     The top octave being stretched so far is not the same as the pure 
> fifths 
> tuning.  I only had two customers that like that sound,(jazzers, both).  I 
> only increased the stretch in the last 12 notes. 
> 

The problem I see with what you did is that it is purely arbitrary.  You 
simply "jacked up" your FAC program artificially by a number you picked out 
of thin air, you didn't match or blend any coincident partials.  You could 
have ended up in the same range by actually tuning these notes to something, 
not just "punching up numbers" as you admit to having done.

Previously you wrote on the List for all to read and believe whatever you say 
must be right because after all, you tune for Waylon, Willie and the Boys and 
*they* like it,  that the way I tune octaves "***DOESN'T MAKE SENSE AT 
ALL***", well, guess what I think about what you did? 

When I tune the piano, I *tune* it, I don't just dial in numbers and hope 
that no one will complain.  Of course no one complained, it would have been 
unprofessional for them to have done so.  Next time, read the SAT manual and 
see what it says about tuning octaves instead of experimenting on the job.

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/15/4d/a1/7f/attachment.htm

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--