---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment I enjoy the cracking the unison method. As I mentioned, fumbling with the mutes is my only headache. Before, I was having trouble inserting the felt in the trebble because the hammers would go thunk thunk thunk when I plaid notes in that trebble. In the bass, it was a pian because I had trouble destinguishing visually the break between each note. The two fat string notes were too close , and pushing in the felt always muffled the string. When my instructor an RPT of course whom I found through the PTG, taugh me this method, I don't desire any other tuning method. Now I have temperment strips here I can use for action repairs etc, when the time comes for me to acquire that skill. I'm loving piano tuning and the life long journey of learning this trade. We never stop learning. Anyone who thinks they've arrived nees to take a look. They're probably at the wrong destination. :) Marshall -------------- Original message -------------- From: william ballard <yardbird@vermontel.net> On Jan 6, 2006, at 1:44 AM, David Andersen wrote: You do use a mute. Not using one would be wacky, and counterproductive. I'm relieved to hear that. Tuning a unison between two strings of a unison with the third string also open is an aural tuning exercise which I described in "Your Friend the Unison" (PTJ 1/97). Essentially zero beating one beat rate while another, simultaneous, stays constant. The faster both beat rates are (ie., the further apart the starting frequencies are), the more elbow room you have in which to avoid tuning the string worked on to the wrong "other" string. There's nothing to tell you which string pitch is being closed in on, only that you've finally nailed it. That's when the remaining and constant beat rate cleans up (ie., takes on the sound of a two-string beat rate). Similar to tuning a two-string unison when one of the strings has a false beat. It's probably possible once one is really good at cracking the unison, to make such a tweak-sized correction as David has described it, without a mute and with all three strings open. You'd have to 1.) pay attention to which direction you'd cracked the unison (a no-brainer), 2.) memorize the shape of that "cracking" (or if you're a "pry-my-cold-dead-fingers-off-the-7th-partial" type like me, memorize the beat speed of your favorite high partial), 3.) bump the second string up/down to the first string until you hear that the beat rate between the 3d string and the combination of the 1st two sounds like a two string unison with clean strings instead one where one of the strings has a false beat. Now, your have-way between 3d base and home plate. 4.) tune the 3d string to the first two. Real Piano Men don't use mutes. (you know who you are.......) Cracking the unison was described by Virgil Smith in PTG 2/95, although for him it was a very casual matter. I referred to it as "prior art" in my 1/97 article, although when I first tumbled on it, it quickly took on the highly aural useful technique pitch shimming. In years of conversation, I never ran across anyone doing something similar. This is not to claim ownership of the technique of pitch shimming (or even unison cracking), just to observe that as a seemingly simple technique ready to be stumbled on by any aural tuner, it's a remarkably obscure one. IMO, mastering this skill is crucial for high-end work, really fine tuning. Copy that, good buddy! Bill Ballard RPT NH Chapter, P.T.G. "I'll play it and tell you what it is later...." ...........Miles Davis +++++++++++++++++++++ ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/38/06/13/a8/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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