all, I HAVE to comment here, as I was the one who started this controversy. Although, I agree that proper hammer to string matching is essential and voicing is prime, I still contend that the tuning can be the major factor of "bloom". Having just returned from the Pacific Northwest Conference, in Pasco Washington, the emails have piled up. One of my classes was on "bird-cage" pianos (correctly: Over-damper pianos). I was furnished with a German, overstrung, Overdamper Upright, vintage circa 1875. This piano had been restrung, but little else was done, in terms of action work. The piano, initially, sounded, as most of these do, awful! I spent about 4 hours on correcting the miscellaneous playing problems and then pitch raised it and tuned it. I used a John Marsh Meantone temperament, as I believe that HT is far more appropriate on a true Olde instrument, rather than a modern instrument. The results: All, (yes, All), in the class agreed that the instrument sounded quite nice. None could identify what kind of temperament was on the instrument. As I did the pitch raise in ET, I can attest that the piano sounded ok, but did not have much warmth and didn't seem to have much "projection". After putting the John Marsh tuning on the piano, it did, in fact "Bloom". I submit all of this, simply for your consideration. One final thing: with these type of instruments, the damping is always a bone of contention with most techs. I have found that when a "Bird-cage" is out of tune, it sounds like _ _ _ _, (pick an adjective) ;-). But, when properly tuned the damping becomes less of a "bone of contention". This fact, is IMHO part of the thing that creates the "bloom". Thanks for listening. Best Regards, Joe Garrett, RPT, (Oregon)
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