Aural Tuning- Pianos with High Inharmonicity

[John Formsma]

Greg,

Give this a shot and see how it works for you.  Basically, you have to tune
it pretty "tight." It's not a piano that seems to like an expanded tuning at
all.

I'm finding that a 4:2 A3-A4 octave is a good starting point. I might expand
that just a bit if a contiguous 4th/5th "lets" me.

>From there, I generally set the F3-A3 3rd about 6.0 - 6.5 bps. The F3-F4
octave must be in between a 4:2 and 6:3. On the Baldwin Acros (and
Hamiltons), there is a big distance between those two octave sizes, which is
not so big on other pianos. I usually go by what sounds best, then check to
see if it's wider than a 4:2, but smaller than a 6:3.

The temperament is nice and smooth, except I usually have to make F3-C4 pure
or a tad wide to fit. ???  But everything else falls right into place. It's
somewhat of a contracted temperament compared to what I normally do.

Going down, 4:2 octaves work best down to the crossover point when 6:3 works
better (not sure offhand just exactly what that point is, but maybe around
G2). From there, I think 6:3 down to A0, but maybe a tad wider in the last
half-octave. Going up from F4, you have to be very conservative and do 4:2
octaves. The 5ths will be beating faster than on other pianos, but you have
to keep them contracted or the dbl octaves will be 2 bps or more. ( E.g.
C3-C5. This is why 4:2 octaves work best in the tenor and high bass.) I also
use the octave-fifth/dbl octave test here because if you're tuning for the
best octave sound, it will make the dbl octave too wide. E.g ., C4-C5, if
you tune the best octave as the ear hears it, C3-C5 will be way too wide.
So, tune the octave so it splits the difference between the dbl octave and
the octave-fifth (Bill Bremmer style).

Going up into the high treble, I'm probably tuning an almost pure
octave-fifth above F5. That seems to give it a good stretch without getting
the dbl octaves too wide (But you have to be conservative below that). As
I'm tuning the high treble, the dbl octave-fifth is somewhat narrower and
beats more than on other pianos, but I ignore that because it makes the
double and triple octaves better.

I find it's easy to tune the treble too sharp as my ear keeps telling me
"That's flat, that's flat." But testing will show it's not and the end
result is pretty sweet.

JF

On 3/6/07, Greg Livingston <pianotuner440 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Dear Friends,
>
> (This is for my aural-tuning colleagues; I am three college tuitions away
> from an ETD...)
>
> Today I struggled with a 70's Acrosonic and no matter what I did, it still
> sounded lousy. I tune aurally, using Bill Bremmer's chain (April-May 2004
> PTG Journal). Finally, I went back to my old standby, 4ths and 5ths, and
> got
> it sounding okay.
>
> When you tune a PSO, do you spread the F-A third wide?  Do you set it at 7
> bps or more? Do you try to get the F-D to match the A-C#? Or do just try
> to
> get the octaves as beat-free as you can? How do you deal with these
> beasts?
>
> My wife says I shouldn't take on any more spinets...maybe she's right...
>
> _______________________________________
> Gregory P. Livingston, Piano Tuning and Service
> 781-237-9178
> Piano Technicians Guild, associate member
> (Boston chapter)
>
>                           *   *   *
> Always remember September 11, 2001
>
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