..something new for me..

[Phil Bondi]

I was aked to tune in a new Sanctuary..new meaning very new..and acoustics
that...well..let's just say that's the purpose of this post..and I will
direct it to the new guys like myself.

The acoustics were terrible at best..marble floors..the piano was on a stage
with wood flooring...very high ceilings and lots of glass..and of course, no
parishoners were present to 'absorb' any sound..

My normal force to strike a key while tuning is, I would say, f. I found out
in a hurry that f is waaay too loud in that kind of situation..the echo
coming off the ceilings sounded like a 'clunk', or a poorly positioned
hammer at C8..it that kind of 'thud' to it.

What I found out is you have to tune somewhere around pp in this situation,
and take as much of the room out of the picture as possible. If I were to do
battle with those acoustics, I would still be there( I tuned it yesterday).
Tuning at pp gave me the 'opportunity' to hear what I wanted to hear out of
the piano in order to do a good job....but...now comes the stability issue.

The piano in question was an older GH1.

 'Thank God' it was a Yamaha. It has been my experience that they are fairly
stable instruments and will stay where you set them.

Back to the stability issue...since I was unable to 'test blow' for fear of
the wrath of the Acoustics God coming down upon me, I waited till I was done
tuning at pp to do this. What I did was play block triads with my Left hand,
and 2 octaves up, played the Root, 3rd, and octave with my right
hand...played chords chromatically till I got to the end..and I banged it
hard...and i did it again a 2nd time.

Much to my surprise, the tuning at pp held up very well..there were a few
unruly unisons after that 'beating', but for the most part, it held up.

I like to 'use' a room when I tune..don't ask me to explain it..yet..it will
turn out like Virgil's Natural Beats discussion..but in a case like this, I
had to eliminate the room in order to do my job.

I'm sure the more experienced techs have encountered this same scenario..so
this is directed to the new, up-and-coming techs..

Rule # BR549 - don't fight the acoustics...eliminate them.

roo(k)