ETDs and aural checks

[A440A@AOL.COM]

<< How many of you ETD users do aural checks?  Isn't that a waste of time,
if you can trust the ETD?  Or can't they be trusted?  (I'm not giving my
opinion -- yet, anyway.) >>

This depends on the piano.  A strange one, like a Gotrian-Steinweg, I listen 
carefully.  However,  I tuned a piano this a.m that I tune perhaps 100 times 
a year.  I don't listen at all! Since my program has proven itself many times 
over,  I put in the ear plugs and go to it. (it's a Hamburg B,  and the B4 
HAS to be tuned by ear, as it has its own requirements to sound "still". ) 
   This piano usually is "tuned" in 10 minutes,(it is in a room inside a room 
in a recording studio), which is what it takes to examine each unison.  
Occasionally, the heat has been turned off or up or something has changed the 
weather, and then I have to completely tune it again. Which takes about 90 
minutes.  
    From what I have experienced, the speed and stabilty often seem to be 
inversely proportional.  Maybe some tuners have perfect hammer technique, but 
usually, the fast ones seem to have more loose unisons after a day or two( or 
after a Rachmaninoff prgram).  If the customers come to recognize tunings as 
being extraordinarily stable, they don't mind paying the higher price, so 
there is a point of diminishing returns when the speed compromises the 
quality.  
   I tune everything I tune to broadcast and recording standards, I charge 
like hell and don't worry about the time.  Since I have been able to charge 
the highest prices in this town(by anywhere from 40-100%)for the last 26 
years and still turn down more work than I accept, the "extra" time taken to 
be obsessive has proven to be a good investment.  
   For scheduling reasons, I have never spent more than an hour on any of the 
tunings that I have done at conventions, and sometimes 45 minutes was all I 
had (to do a pitch raise + change temperaments!).  So far, so good, I think, 
Regards, 
Ed Foote RPT
(as  I stated before, any techs that have listened to my tunings are welcome 
to comment either way,  I think critique is one of the most important avenues 
for learning and improvement, no matter how painful).