In a message dated 1/19/00 5:34:01 AM Pacific Standard Time, jformsma@dixie-net.com (John M. Formsma) writes: << <<<The shift that occurs will be with all unisons by the more or less same amount.>>> Since you are very experienced, I accept this as true. I also worry about Murphy's Law--that the more *could* be where the less should be, and vice versa. Maybe I should not concern myself about this. These things are not said to be argumentative; rather, it is only relating my experience up to this point. In 10 years, I will probably read this and think to myself that it really does not matter. I also realize that a lot of this is subjective rather than scientific. Maybe it falls into the category of arguing how many angels can fit on the head of a pin.... <g> >> As you usually have been, John, all of your observations are correct. Strip muting is not "better" than the single mute approach. What I have a problem with are those who insist that you can't properly tune a piano that way and even worse, those who strip mute the entire piano and turn each pin only once. That would only be a rough tuning in most circumstances and could usually be done in 20 minutes or less, not enough time to spend tuning a piano. To me, the advantages of strip muting are mostly psychological but those advantages are very real to me. Most pianos I am asked to tune, even concert instruments which are tuned several times a year, are enough out of tune that a pitch change is required. The distinct 4 season climate I live in causes the pitch and octaves to change enough in only a few months that it makes it necessary. For me, the strip mute allows me to move across the piano quickly. When I tune aurally, I still tune up and down in whole steps the way I learned from Jim Coleman RPT. This whole step scale seems to cause less internal stress than the ever tension building chromatic scale. The pins are easy to find, they are always in a straight line. To me, it is far more tedious and time consuming to insert the mute every at every string and at every step of the way. For some, however, this is what you do and the strip mute seems cumbersome. George Defebaugh RPT used to say, "You can tune a piano a lot more quickly and easily twice than you can fight with it once". I caught on to that right away and have lived by it ever since. It usually only takes me 45 minutes to tune the piano twice over completely and have a very good, stable job. When programming a tuning for the SAT, I long ago decided that my EBVT should start with A3 on 0.0 and that after that, each note could either be a whole or .5 number. If it really seemed to fall in between, I would try the next half or whole number up or down and see how that sounded. I could usually make it fit. The CMSE is only .5 cents. If I have tuned a little sharper, it has largely been absorbed just doing that alone when tuning the outer octaves. The idea of establishing the pitch by comparing a single string with a single string plus the other techniques I use seem to make the CMSE not to be a problem, both before and after I even was aware that it is a real phenomenon. I think it is important to distinguish between the CMSE and just plain instability. It is very easy to pound a unison flat by quite a bit more than .5 cents. Under most circumstances, if I can just get the piano to really hold on to the program, I will have a superb sounding tuning. That is the best I could do in Providence and also at the rematch with Virgil Smith RPT in Chicago. There was no time to "customize" the program except for the wound strings in both cases. I remember showing my Walter Grand program to Dr. Al Sanderson. He thought it looked "too generic" (and it looked way too sharp to him in the high treble. Jim Coleman likes the way I tune my octaves, though and so does Virgil Smith. I think most people do but there will always be some people who like a more contracted sound. He thought that I could certainly make some improvements in it if I listened carefully enough. I had intended to do just that but as circumstances were, including harassment by one of the Assistant Convention Directors who found a reason to not permit me the time I needed to do it, I had to go with the program I had worked out for a Walter Grand in Madison. Only during the final pass did I make small corrections in the wound strings. I did use the single mute after the final pass to touch up the unisons. This is exactly the reverse of the way you describe and also what Virgil Smith says but I don't really find a contradiction. Each time I have taken the PTG RPT Tuning Exam, I have scored 100% on my unisons. I have even been "condemned with faint praise" by some Steinway personnel, who have never liked any of my temperaments but who have said that my unisons were so good that it was the reason they thought the tuning as a whole had found success. Ray Chandler RPT of Kawai has said that too. So, in the end, I do not challenge what the single mute tuners say. It's just that I rarely get to the point where I find a piano already so well in tune that I can use that method. So, finding the method that works for you under differing circumstances is the thing to do. From what you have written, it seems that you are doing very well. Regards, Bill Bremmer RPT Madison, Wisconsin
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