[pianotech] tuning without strip-muting

[David Nereson]

  First of all, I don't strip; I leave my clothes on.  Nor do I strip the
piano.  If I were to strip the piano, I be hauling in paint & varnish
remover, drop cloths, steel wool, denatured alcohol, scrapers, etc.
   Rather, I *strip-mute *the piano.  I've tried tuning using only rubber
(or felt) mutes and it takes way too long, regardless of the sequence, or
procedure.  I like temperament strips.  It barely takes me 2 minutes to
insert them, and I have the choice of either a) tuning all the middle
strings so that I can then do checks of any type of interval from a minor
third to a quadruple octave without worrying about unison strings that have
slipped, thus "muddying" the intervals I'm trying to check, OR  I can b)
tune unisons as I go, and touch up anything that slips with a second pass.
Either way takes about the same amount of time.
    Despite many technicians' claims to the contrary, I've never
experienced that temperament strips or that *not *tuning the entire unison
as you go results in less stability.
    Also, I can pitch raise WAY faster aurally and using felt strips than I
could with just mutes or having to wait for lights (or other display) to
stop spinning.  I tuned aurally for 25 years, then broke down and bought an
ETD in hopes of saving time.  It does sometimes, but not by much -- maybe 5
or 10 minutes at the most.  I use it for the tuning, but do my final check
and "tweaking" without it.
    << you "old timers" who say your too old to change>>
                                  (That's "you're" -- you are)
   I'm not too old to change.  I try different sequences and methods from
time to time, but end up coming back to what I find most efficient.  As
with many shop procedures, picking up and setting down tools can add
greatly to the amount of time required to complete a job.  Same with tuning
-- pulling and inserting those mutes adds up.
    I'm convinced that hammer technique -- ability to set the pin and make
it stay -- is way more important than the sequence used in tuning or
whether one uses felt strips or rubber mutes.  (This is *after *the pitch
raise I'm talking about.)
    --David Nereson, RPT
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