On Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 10:05 AM, Ron Nossaman <rnossaman at cox.net> wrote: Tuners I've watched using single mutes have inserted mutes with the dampers > down, with no apparent concern or even awareness of the potential for damage > to the dampers, while they'd be horrified to see someone strip the same > section with the dampers down. > > Ron N I always lift the dampers before inserting either wedge mutes or strip mutes. With strip mutes, obviously it's easier to lift them all at once with the pedal. With wedge mutes, the dampers are lifted by depressing the keys: the one being tuned, and its adjacent neighbor. Regarding the broader topic of whether 'tis nobler to use two mutes or strip mutes, I find it: - the best muting with felt wedge mutes. (any strip I've used heretofore has at least some noticeable bleed-through. We get used to working around it. Seems like there is much less of that with the big felt wedge mutes.) - most accurate to use wedge mutes, but less speedy - most speedy to use a strip to set the temperament (although I sometimes use just wedge mutes and tune unisons as I go) - the best blend of speed and accuracy to use a strip mute everywhere, but tune unisons as I go. It's faster to pull out the strip one unison at a time than to move mutes around. - particularly in verticals it's helpful to use a strip mute in the treble to avoid having to move mutes around the dampers. I actually use two strips in the treble this way: Tune the middle strings of an octave, pull one strip out from that octave, then bring in the unisons moving by whole steps up then back down. Verify they are where I want them, then pull out the other strip from that octave. Repeat that process all the way up to the top, working with about an octave at a time. FWIW, -- JF -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090805/3049d672/attachment.htm>
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