Strip mutes was . . Re: Moving from Uprights to Grands

[Susan Kline]

At 10:27 AM 7/21/2005 -0400, Ric wrote:
>'is the muted temperament exactly the same when you return to complete the 
>unisons'?

That is a simple enough question: it depends on how far out the piano was 
to begin with, and also on how good your hammer technique was when tuning 
the first string. But I don't think this is the right question. The 
question I would ask is, "how much does the temperament change as the side 
strings are tuned?" If the pitch has been raised, the answer, of course, is 
"quite a bit."

Most of the time, unless the piano was very close to begin with, I just do 
two quick passes.

The strip has one advantage: when you return and tune the side strings you 
get a very good sense of exactly how far and in which direction you had to 
change the pitch.

If you tune each unison as you go (just one or two wedges) you depend on 
your tuning stability throughout. Unless you tune very stable unisons 
quickly, it's going to be very hard for you to do a decent temperament. I 
suppose this is why tuners in the UK (and a few here) look down on those 
who use a strip mute. Ric even said "has to use a temperament strip."

I don't HAVE to use a strip mute -- I _can_ tune just fine without one. I 
find it _convenient_ to use a strip mute, and I feel that doing two fast 
passes with a strip mute gives me better stability than doing one slow pass 
with wedges only.

The next question is for those who tune with only wedges: "how far does the 
pitch change as you proceed with the tuning?" Only those who use a machine 
know for sure. From my experience with the middle treble, which usually is 
the least stable part of a piano, and which I don't strip mute, I would say 
that the pitch changes less than if you wait to tune the side strings, but 
still, it changes appreciably unless it was very close to begin with.

I just do two passes. If the second pass requires quite a bit of tuning, I 
do three passes. That usually settles whatever needs settling. If I put the 
strip back in for the second pass, and almost nothing needs to be changed 
at all, I can be confident that the first pass was sufficient. Checking 
takes very little time.

Best to all, on both sides of the water

Susan Kline