Conrad, I found RW again today

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 10/31/00 12:56:46 PM Central Standard Time, 
hoffsoco@martin.luther.edu (Conrad Hoffsommer) writes:

<< I just tuned my first piano of 
 the day (1950s Baldwin R), and found it hardly needed a thing, just a 
 little pitch change right above the bass/tenor break and two or three 
 unisons.  Those M3s were beating ever so nicely faster and faster as I went 
 up the scale. Even the M10s and M19s showed no signs of speed reversal in 
 either direction.  Somebody must have really screwed up and left it in ET, 
 but then again it's only going to be used for jazz this week - Lincoln 
 Center Jazz Sextet is here for a five day residency. >>

Whoever tuned that piano last must be in the top 10% of tuners who really 
know the difference between ET and RW.

Now, just think if you were unethical like me and tuned for that Jazz group 
in EBVT.  The first thing that would happen is, the pianist would play the 
3rds and say, "Hey, these 3rds are uneven!"  Then he'd try to play "Body & 
Soul" and would quit after just a few bars and exclaim, "Hey, you can't 
*modulate* with this thing".  Then the other instruments which are all in 
perfect ET would notice that only a few of their pitches match.  They'd all 
yell, "Hey, we can't play in tune with this piano the way you have it!, We 
want ET!"

You'd be called on the carpet, dragged into court, made to pay loss and 
punitive damages in the 10's to 100's of thousands of dollars, be fired from 
your job, kicked out of PTG and exiled to Wisconsin!  Don't ever try it!  You 
have nothing to gain and everything to lose!  Don't follow that road less 
chosen, people only do that in corny poems and get away with it.

As someone on the List recently admonished, "There's a *reason* all of those 
other temperaments are *historical*".  (and don't you forget it!).

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin