45 min tunings

[Daniel Jackson]

Hi all,
	
	This has been a most interesting discussion and I'll just wade right
in.
	An example....today I tuned a "Baldwin" spinet that was 100 cents flat
in the middle and worse at the ends. I rough tuned it up starting on
middle c. I mute two octaves with a felt strip and rough out the
bearings at the same time pulling up a few notes (unisons) up and down
the board. Then I go up tuning the muted strings as well (you can still
hear them) and then down. This rough up takes only about 10 minutes.
Learning to rough tune unisons without usings mutes is good. The best
way as I believe Ron stated is to go ahead with the rapid tuning and
then see what you've got. I think restringing and chipping up pianos to
be excellent practice if you want to be faster. When I started with this
piano I put it a little sharp. It still dropped down below 440 after the
first rough up. Sometimes I can guess at it and sometimes not. In the
end it took about an hour and half and I had done most of it three
times, played on it and spot tuned odd ball treble strings and reglued a
loose hammer. 
	Here's a little game I play sometimes. I made it up and maybe others do
it already. When pulling up bichords, if they are in good unison, listen
to the beats with the octave above. Then without muting, pull one of the
two strings up until it beats the same rate that you got with the
octave. You can by this method tune perfect octaves and get the bichord
in unison without any muting. It also helps relieve the monotony of
repitition.
	Jon, as regards how long it takes to be fast.....You probably have all
the wisdom you can digest already, but don't be in a hurry to get
faster. When you're proficient enough you'll be faster. For me it came
gradually and one day I recognized that I was tuning twice as fast as I
used to. Then I set out to see just how fast I could tune. It's not a
good idea. As someone else said, don't think of it as a 45 minute tuning
rather a tuning that took 45 minutes.
	My first mentor who is in his 70s and blind now says it takes a good
five years to really be able to tune well and another five to peak.
That's a rough sort of paraphrase... but anyway
						for what it's worth............dan J