Finishing where you started

Billbrpt@AOL.COM Billbrpt@AOL.COM
Thu, 30 Nov 2000 09:39:09 EST


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> Larry wrote:
> 
> If I had money when I was learning to tune, I would probably be using one
> of these ET's to pitch raise today.  But I didn't.  I still don't :o)  But
> now I can pitch raise precisely enough within about 1/2 hour, then fine
> tune so I can't justify the expense of an ET for pitch raising for
> myself.  But right now my ET budget is diverted to my gas budget!
> 
> Larry Beach, RPT
> Vancouver, Canada
> 
> Amen brother, just checking the prices on the RCT and SAT.  It'll be a 
> while...
> 
> Working on a shoestring,
> Mitch Ruth
> DeMossville,KY USA
> 

Here we go again with the confusion that using undefined acronyms sometimes 
causes.  Electronic Tuners are usually referred to as Electronic Tuning 
Devices (ETD) or Visual Tuning Devices (VTD).  The "ET" that you often see 
written on this List has come to mean Equal Temperament (not Extra 
Terrestrial).

That much having been sorted out, I personally encourage Aural Tuning 
techniques over the use of ETD's.  After all, just think of how many pianos 
you would have to tune just to earn enough to pay for one, regardless of 
which type you choose.  I tuned for some 21 years before I ever bought an SAT 
II and even then for about 2 years I kept thinking that I could do it 
"faster, better and cheaper" with my $3.00 tuning fork.

Even today, the $1600 price tag for a new SAT III hardly seems worth it since 
I never use the highly touted FAC program anyway.  While I respect to no end 
Dr. Sanderson RPT, Robert Scott who created the Tunelab and Dean Reyburn RPT, 
I particularly cannot imagine lugging around and setting up a lap top 
computer just to tune a piano.

My suggestion is that for those who tune aurally and see an ETD as being too 
expensive at present, keep on doing what you're doing.  Once you've been at 
it for another decade or two and you have the money to spend, an ETD can 
relieve some of the stress of tuning, which I consider to be its greatest 
benefit.  Once you've built up your business and your skill to the point 
where there is the customer *demand* that you tune 5 or 6 pianos a day, the 
ETD will make sense to buy and will be the kind of tool which provides the 
speed and consistency you will need.

Keep it up.

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin

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