Aural Tuning- Pianos with High Inharmonicity

[Jim Johnson]

If your wife is right, you'll go broke trying to stay busy tuning pianos 
without tuning any spinets or consoles.  They are our bread and butter, 
especially in the beginning as you build your business.  The nice big grands 
are the desserts.  I used to hate spinets and thought that they should all 
be hauled out and burned, but with time and experience I've come to realize 
that a good portion of our nations musicians started out on spinet pianos. 
As imperfect as they are, they have their place and we need to make peace 
with them.  With time, you will learn how to handle their quirks and 
problems and they will be like any other tuning, just different.  They pay 
the same and take about the same time as any other tuning.  Learning how to 
stretch the bass and treble were the most difficult parts for me.  I use 
double octave 5ths in the treble to set the amount of stretch and don't 
worry a lot about the octaves which will be wide.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Greg Livingston" <pianotuner440 at hotmail.com>
To: <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 8:18 PM
Subject: Aural Tuning- Pianos with High Inharmonicity


>
> 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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