Tuning styles with octaves

[Andrew & Rebeca Anderson]

On some wee beasties I will tune the bass flat to a slow roll if it will 
tame a rather nasty partial.  Some people aim for that to get lots of 
stretch, I personally like the fundamental to be solid.

Andrew
At 10:38 PM 6/9/2004 -0400, you wrote:
>Hello,
>
>I am curious about people who do not tune octaves "perfectly". For 
>instance, tuning bass notes flat or sharp in smaller pianos in favour of 
>better partials.
>
>My own taste and philosophy is to tune all octaves completely beat-less. 
>Even in the bass of small grands, if the note is off-tune in favour of a 
>potentially less offending partial that will bother me far more than the 
>partial. In the highest range, beats appear with the smallest of 
>imperfections and, to me, perfectly clean higher notes (at least on a nice 
>piano) are so pretty - even a very slow beat ruins it for me.
>
>So I was curious to hear people's explanations for stretching octaves. I 
>always figured it was to humour the person they are tuning for, although I 
>have gathered from postings on the list that some tuners prefer it themselves.
>
>When I was studying tuning I recall reading or hearing someone say that if 
>the octaves were tuned "perfectly" they'd be off tune at either end of the 
>piano - I found exactly the opposite! :)
>
>Thanks.
>
>- John
>
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