two strings flatter than one,

[Richard Brekne]

Makes perfect sense... but then it relys on there being a consistant
amount of drop in pitch when second and third strings are coupled in,
regardless of the note you are tuning. Still this is also the way I was
taught, and there are other good reasons for doing this. I always end
tho by checking  an octave with all strings coupled. Even am able to
clean up the lower note by checking its trichord against a single in the
above octave. Tho you have to take into consideration the drop effect to
get to the noise you want to clean up. Not too difficult tho, sorta like
comparing thirds and tenths or other such test intervals in a sense.

Richard Brekne
I.C.P.T.G.  N.P.T.F.
Bergen, Norway

Richard Moody wrote:

> ----------
> > From: John M. Formsma
>
> > if you strip
> > mute the entire piano and tune the middle string of each note,
> then come
> > back and tune unisons, could we be so lucky that everything
> would fall into
> > place?  I don't really know, but tuning with 3-string tuned
> unisons leaves
> > no doubt about it.  With all three strings of the lower note
> of the octave
> > tuned before the upper note of the octave is tuned, you know
> exactly what
> > pitch you will have.
>
> If you tune a stingle string of top note (octave) to the three
> strings of the bottom note  then tune the second string to the
> first, the two strings should now be slightly flat to the bottom
> note.
> It seems like you would want to tune the top string to a single
> string on the bottom. that should give the exact sharpness you
> need to compensate for this "coupling"
> (right word?) effect.
>
> >I quote and agree with his findings:  "...a three-string unison
> > sounds at a lower pitch than a single string of that unison.
> It's easiest
> > to hear this phenomenon while listening to the major 10th."
> >
> That sounds like a very good reason to tune top strings to
> single strings instead of all three.  This is the way I was
> taught, or rather it was given as a tip, when tuning the top
> octaves you might finder it easier to tune to a single string of
> the bottom notes.
> .---ric