When I did this I set a two octave temperament: A2 - A4. I tuned the two octaves (plus the double octave) the way I thought they needed to be tuned to sound clean usually a 4:2 octave from A3 - A4 slightly wide and a 6:3 octave A2 - A3 slightly whatever I needed to get the A2 - A4 double octave clean but slightly wide. I never thought about it exactly, just did it until I was satisfied. Then I filled in the bearings of contiguous thirds and played around with the four notes (2 C#s and 2 Fs) until they all sounded like 4:5 ratios. It was more of a feel thing than an effort to count it. This is art stuff, closeyoureyesandlistenlettheforcebewithyou. As you fill in the rest of the temperament you may run into a problem catching it with your various checks and have to fudge things a little. Depending on what you find you can figure out which note, notes or sometimes the width of the octave that needs to be changed. To be honest, that's why I went to using a machine, at least to set temperaments. So much easier, faster and probably more consistent. I spent too much time playing around with it to get it just so and the machine was just more efficient. I still use checks as I tune the octaves going out from the center and I think that's important because many (if not most) pianos will require some modifications to the calculated tuning curve somewhere. It's important to catch those, I think, so I throw in few quick checks as I'm going but they're all things I can reach with one hand (fortunately, I can easily reach a tenth). Best of both worlds, as I see it. This has been discussed endlessly on the list and I would search the archives thoroughly going back several years as people have outlined their specific methods for both aural and combo styles. David Love davidlovepianos at comcast.net www.davidlovepianos.com -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Jeff Deutschle Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 4:35 AM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Contiguous Major Thirds Accuracy? List: Thank you all for the replies, including the entertaining ones. I sometimes think the difference between a good piano tuning and a poor one is the same difference between a good haircut and a poor one ... a couple of weeks. I was hoping some "hybrid" tuner had measured how accurately they can set the thirds aurally by checking with an ETD. I have not found it in the archives. D.L: Yes if there is a problem with the original CM3's it will show up as more notes are tuned. Then the question arises as to which third (or both) is wrong or is the problem due to a difficult break? J.F: You mention the importance of identical octave widths when tuning CM3's. Would this mean that if octave widths are tuned differently to compromise for a challenging break, that CM3's cannot be used? -- Regards, Jeff Deutschle Please address replies to the List. Do not E-mail me privately. Thank You. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20081027/530ea8af/attachment-0001.html
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC