Our Tuning Power

Our Tuning Power:

Partial changes:  My old tunings contained three partial changes.  These new tunings contain only two:
1. The tenor partial change is between G#2(6th partial)/A2 (4th partial)
2.The treble partial change is between A4 (4th partial) /A#4. (fundamental or 1st partial).

The use of the 2nd partial (in the mid-range-treble) has been eliminated.

Eliminating the use of the 2nd partial in the 5th octave,  eliminates 2 potential errors and the ‘math’ needed to correct them.   Thanks go out to a good friend and fellow technician Chuck Littau for this suggestion. The SAT’s  light’s rotation is a little slower for 8 or 9 notes, but the extra flexibility and accuracy achieved made eliminating use of the 2nd partial a worthwhile improvement.

These new tunings are ‘hardwired’ with the partials I use in the different sections of the piano, as well as the locations of those partial changes.

These tunings are available for download in two formats:

1. The SAT format
   (you will only be able to ‘open’ these tunings if you have the Piano Librarian Software)
2. The Excel spreadsheet format
   (can be opened and viewed in Microsoft Excel or another Microsoft Excel compatible spreadsheet program)

Ideally these tunings are ‘tweaked’ and modified to fit the piano thru the use of the Double Octave Beat feature (DOB) available on the Sanderson Accu-Tuners III and IV, and the Offset feature which is available on every Sanderson Accu-Tuner.  Of course they can be used with out any tweaking or modifying at all, but customizing the tuning to the piano yields better results.

Modifying the Tuning to Fit the Piano:

Every partial change is a guess until verified!    Errors at this tenor partial change have a significant effect on the intervals using notes on opposite sides of the partial change.

Tenor Partial Change:

Once you have selected the tuning you want to use to tune the piano,  you need to know (if you don’t already) where the partial change occurs in the memory tuning you are using.   (In these tunings the tenor partial change location is between G#2/A2.)

My tunings use the 4th partials on the notes above the tenor partial change location (A2 – A4) , and the 6th partial on all the notes below the tenor partial change location  (A0 – G#2).

Look at the settings (contained on the memory tuning) for the notes A2 and, A#2 .   Lets say the setting for A2 is -1.6 and  A#2 is -1.4.   The ‘difference” in cents between these notes is .2 c.   Therefore, a good guess for the tuning of G#2 using the 4th partial would be -1.8 c..    Tune G#2 to that setting.    ( G#4  @ -1.8 )

Now that you know G#2 is correctly tuned, go back into the MEMory mode of the SAT and see if the memory tuning has the correct placement for G#2 when using the 6th partial.

If the lights are stopped, great!   But if they are not, you need to correct it.   I prefer using an Offset, rather than DOB for this.

Measure the difference between the correctly tuned G#2 and the setting on the memory tuning.     Offset the SAT to that amount.    Leave this offset stored in the SAT when tuning all notes using the 6th partial (A0-G#2).

(Again, I prefer using an Offset rather than DOB for this.   Using an offset here is more accurate, and I like having a 0.0 starting point for DOB @ G#2.   From this 0.0 starting point it is relatively easy to incrementally add and/or subtract DOB to tailor the tuning to fit the bass of the particular piano being tuned.)

Just make sure you remove the offset when tuning the rest of the piano!

A related word here about DOB.    Often, a large offset (correction ) at the tenor partial change can cause problems because it  raises/lowers all the bass notes (using the 6th partial).    But this can be easily remedied thru the use of DOB.    A large offset will sometimes demand a lot of DOB use in the bass.    But fixing the error at the partial change and using DOB to adjust the stretch in the bass will result in a much better sounding bass tuning.  Using DOB to either add or remove stretch from A2 to A1, and then again in the A0-A1 range takes care of it very nicely.

Of course the more closely matched the memory tuning is to the piano being tuned, the better, probably requiring a smaller tenor offset and less DOB tweaking in the bass.   (You can read more about what DOB does and how it works in the Instruction Manuals for the SAT III or SAT IV).

Treble Partial Change:

The treble partial change is between A4 (4th partial) / A#4 (1st partial or fundamental).

No partial change ‘correction’ is ever needed here since A4 is always A-440 or  0.0 c.

The only partial change in these tunings we need to worry about, is the one in the tenor.

Different Octave Widths Used in these tunings:

A3/A4 slightly wide 2:1 octave starting point: -.6 c.
A2/A4  wide 4:1 octave  starting point:  – 1.6 c.
A1/A2 slightly wide 6:3 octave (approx 1.0 – 1.5  c.)
A5  balanced between a slightly wide 2:1 (from A4) and a slightly narrow 4:1 (from A3)
A6  clean 4:1 double from A4
A7 is a clean 8:1 triple octave (from A4)
A0 – F#1 or so, is probably the most varied especially on the smaller scales.

Other Tuning Modifications and Tweaks:

Other tweaks necessary to fit the tunings to the piano include:
1. adjusting the ‘stretch’ in the bass and the low bass,
2. checking and adjusting the width of the A3/A4 octave,
3. checking and adjusting the width of the A2/A3 octave,
4. checking and adjusting the width of the A2/A4 double octave,
5. checking and adjusting the placement of A5 and A7.

Once ‘ target’ notes are determined, using the Double Octave Beat (DOB) feature found on the Accu-Tuner III and IV to fill in the blanks, completes the tuning.

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Do Most “computerized tunings”  over stretch the midrange of the piano?

Contained in the Sanderson AccuTuner’s Instruction Manual (download here) is  Al’s ” The Two-Octave (A) Temperament” (Appendix E).  It begins by tuning A4 to A440 or zero cents, and then says to tune A3 as a 4:2 octave (from A4) 1 c. wide. In Step 2 he says to tune A2 from A3 as a 6:3 octave 1 cent wide.

His 3rd step is to measure the width of the A2 -A4 double octave (4:1) and if it is wider than 4 cents, to divide the excess by 3 and narrow both octaves by that amount. (If the double octave is 5.5 cents wide, 5.5 – 4 = 1.5, 1.5 / 3 = .5 ).

The implication here is that a 4c. wide A2/A4 double octave (4:1) is ‘OK’. Also, that a 1c. wide A3/A4 4:2 octave is ‘OK’ too, as is a 1 c. wide A2/A3 6:3 octave. That both of these are fine sounding as long as the 4:1 double octave is not wider than 4 cents.

You Listen, You Decide.

Next time you are tuning a piano, take a few minutes to do some measuring and listening to the A2/A4 4:1 double octave.

Try tuning this double octave 4 cents wide and see how you like it.   Then tune it 5 cents wide and then  3 cents wide and see how you like it.  Try  2 cents wide, and then 1 cent wide.   Tune it clean just for fun.  Do this on a number of different sized pianos.   After a  while you will discover your own preferences.

Over stretching in the mid range when tuning a console, spinet,  or small grand can create problems if minimal beating is a goal.   Generally speaking, these pianos sound better (less beating) when stretched less in that area, not more.

Experienced tuners have all experienced less than great results on certain pianos.

Why is it that doing the exact same routine on a good piano sounds good, but then a couple hours later doing the exact same routine on a different piano,  doesn’t?

Are good clean unisons all we really need?

‘Floating Pitch’ implies pitch doesn’t really matter.    The customer won’t be able to ‘tell’, will they?

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A good routine should produce good results on every piano, every time.

This tuning approach allows total flexibility to make the octaves wider or narrower throughout the tuning as the technician himself prefers, accurately and consistently.   Without any partial change problems.

Now that I know how to make them sound good, I actually like tuning challenging pianos!   Few technicians go to this much trouble to make the short scale pianos sound really good.

Some years ago one of our past PTG presidents wrote in the Journal of a customer’s complaint a few days after his tuning of a challenging spinet piano in a church choir room. His basic response to the music director was the piano was just a bad piano and she shouldn’t expect much out of it.  Even though there is a germ of truth to what he told her, it wasn’t  the all the piano’s fault it didn’t sound good enough for her when he was finished ‘tuning’ it.

The Music Director at the church knew it was a 40 year old Cable Nelson Spinet – she knew what she had.   She knew it wasn’t a great piano.    Those pianos require extra skill to get them to sound good.   It is expected of us, and we should be able to tune them so the customer doesn’t complain.

Yes, pitch does matter.   And so does fixing problems caused by partial changes, having as few partial changes as possible, using “friendly” partials,  locating partial changes in places that assist us in our measuring and cause the fewest problems, and getting the ‘stretch’ right and well ‘transitioned’  in the different areas of the piano.  It ALL matters!

We need to take our tuning power back by using all our tools and skills to help us do better things our way, not the other way round.

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