Clean unisons/Super string

[Kristinn Leifsson]

Hi,

Actually Jim, no matter what you do, there will always be a 
quasi-hemi-demi-semi-quaver.
Yes this IS a word, but I guess you know that Mr. Super String. ;)

I would not TRY to make it like that since clean unisons are what "normal" 
people very often use to determine a tuner´s competence.
But to each his/her own.  If this customer would like a bar-room 
Bösendorfer then you can offer to de-tune every other string.

The two things you have to do are:

1. Charge a full tuning for the moral efforts you have to put into work 
like that.
2. Threaten them, that if they tell ANYBODY who did that tuning, you will 
tune every unison super clean thereafter. :)


Bye,

Kristinn

P.S. Does anyone know who manufactures the Super Strings? :)



At 20:25 4.10.2000 -0400, you wrote:
>In a message dated 10/04/2000 6:01:50 PM, Linda wrote:
>
><<"I had a fun complaint on a tuning today, that it was too clean.">>
>
>Linda;
>Notes can't be "too clean".
>But "clean" notes can be very lifeless.
>A unison which is very very slightly off, perhaps on just one string, will
>have more presence and sustain than one which is 'dead on'. Played one note
>at a time this should be no problem but if the combinations of notes, as in a
>chord, are all 'dead on' than the overall perception of the chord will
>likewise be more Lifeless than a chord where all the notes were not 'dead on'
>but just a tiny-tiny bit out.
>
>  'WE' need to remember that what we listen to as tuners does not needfully
>relate
>to what musicians hear when they play. Perceptions differ widely and
>preferences are formed based on exposure. Witness the revival of HTs, semi
>Hts, and pseudo HTs as well as the altering of ET, on a selective basis,
>which are all becoming more 'normal' than just a few years ago.
>
>  Is this "too clean" a problem? not usually...unless you run into someone 
> who
>objects to the "too clean" sound. This is similar to the problem of a
>customer who has not had their piano tuned in a looooong time and then when
>it is tuned complains that "it just doesn't sound right". :-(
>
>  Your customer is right, but so are you and you are to be congratulated for
>getting a piano tuned so well that the complaint is
>of the "cleaness" (sic) of the tuning! :-) Put a litttttle hemi-semi quaver
>in some of the notes in question, satisfy your customer, yourself and
>remember that this technique, used judiciously, can be used to add presence
>to some future "dead" notes.........
>Jim Bryant (FL)