Kent Swafford/....ETD generated tuning and refines it."

[Kent Swafford]

On Sunday, September 22, 2002, at 06:37 PM, Joseph Garrett wrote:

> Bremmers comment, if you read it carefully, was that the piano is 
> TUNED with an ETD and then master tuned, aurally. I personally 
> suggested that be done, a few years ago and was told absolutely not! 
> Hmm? There definitely seems to be some differences of opinion in the 
> use of an ETD in Master Tuning.

I'm not presently on the ETSC, but I am a past ETSC Tuning Subcommittee 
Chair, and I have the current manual on my desk as I type.

"The equipment cannot be used as a standard to judge the master 
tunings, but it can be used to make small changes."

There is nothing in the manual that prohibits the use of the ETD for 
the "pre-tuning", that is, the tuning which the 3 RPTs refine until it 
becomes the master tuning. Indeed, the ETD must be there during the 
pre-tuning to take readings and be sure that the readings are of 
sufficiently good quality to qualify the piano for the exam.

The very first time I participated in a master tuning, I was sent down 
the hallway to the designated room, pushed on the door, and found Dr. 
Al himself pre-tuning the piano with his (then new-fangled) SAT.

Kent