while tuning my piano... (lol @ self)

[Stephen Airy]

Ok, so I'm tuning my piano... (have done temperament
and octaves to bass, using mute strip in center
section and partway into the bass, and mutes the rest
of the way).  I go up almost an octave in the high
treble section tuning by octaves, then when I get to
the break, ok, time to start tuning those unisons.  I
get almost finished with that octave when I decide it
would be easier to stick a strip in up there.  Being
the lazy guy that I am at this moment, I stick the
strip in using the back wire handle on my mute,
without pulling the action.  (Pulling the action makes
the job a world (/me doesn't like to say "hell") of a
lot easier.)  Strip inserted, resume tuning.  Get to
F5/F6 octave.  Hmm..  F5 is only sustaining for about
2 seconds at best... Ahh I see.  Strip is pushed
against center string.  Use fingernails to extract
piece of strip from center string, doesn't work, makes
problem worse, now F5 is staccato.  Ok, now use handle
of mute (below the strip on right side of the note) to
keep strip from being pushed down the string / damper
and out of reach.  This doesn't work either.  I go to
pull the mute, and -- HUH?   Why won't the mute come
out?

Turns out I had actually managed to maneuver the
handle of the mute in such a way that I now had the 3
strings for that note passing THROUGH the handle of
the mute! :)  After trying to remove the mute with the
strings at full tension, I ended up loosening each
string a quarter turn, and this enabled me to extract
the mute.  :)

/me generated 1 minute tones using TuneLab97 (without
having it listen to the piano - just set it up for
pitch A-440, using the 12th-root-of-2 calculations to
generate tones), recorded into wave editor, cut a CD
(consisting of A-440, followed by F3 to F4
chromatically, one minute each tone.  I then tuned the
piano to that.
Ok, so it may be better than the Korg, but you guys
have any suggestions without breaking the bank on a
SAT?  If I could fine on new in an unopened box for
$0.01 on E-bay I might consider it, but my budget is
pretty tight. :)

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