Hi all, yesterday, I hired a new tech to come and tune my piano. We talked briefly about the Grand Obession Book and then talked about what I thought I would like about that type of tuning. I told my tuner, I like clean, round, mellow and not too brilliant tone.

I left the room and he spent appx 2 hours tuning the piano. I heard him play and it sounded beautiful, he asked me to play but I told him I'll play it when he leaves.

He left, I sat down to play and could not believe my ears!!!! It sounded just like I had hoped, mellow, clean, round, warm. I immediately called him and thanked him for a wonderful job. Even after hiring one of the "best" tuners,a tuner that tunes for the large venues in the Denver area, I thought he could never be topped, but Mike Jalving did. He made my piano sound so awesome. I asked him what he did and this is what he said.

"I got as close to a 2 to 1 mathematical ratio that I can get". I don't know what this means, but hopefully other tuners do. He said it would make the piano less brilliant and as I described what I wanted, he heard me, and this is the approach he took.

I'm very happy with the tuning. I highly recommend Mike for any custom tuning. Just tell him what you like and he'll make it happen.

Thanks for listening

I'd like to hear that tuning for myself, but I only have uprights and square grands!

The close to 2:1 ratio sounds like a tuning with very little stretch, which I suppose would make the piano "sound smaller".

Was it normal equal temperament or something else?

What kind of music do you usually play?

The JERK posting one star strikes again.

He does not even let the thread get started.

What is with this moderators? Time for a change.

Stars should NOT be about a vendetta for a particular forum member nor the poster that starts the thread. Threads need several posts to to assume if it is a worthy thread to look into for other forum members and future forum members seeking information.

THIS STAR THING NEEDS TO BE CHANGED!

And to the original post above (OP) ....

I am happy that you have pursued a tuning that is what you are now enjoying!

Talking with your tuner/tech is worth it for sure!

Thank you for sharing!

Lilylady, I'm not sure I know what you're talking about? What rating, what jerk?

Erus, I guess it makes it sound smaller cause until yesterday, I played with the piano lid closed now I love it open.

I play very melodic music, not too many notes, lots of arpeggios, lots of new age type music.

Lilylady ... please enlighten us... what are you on about - what is this to do with 2 to mathematical ratio?

Libby:

Why did you choose to get a different tuning rather than have the piano voiced which I think would be the normal way of changing the tone quality?

Pianoloverus, it's been voiced and it's not the tone I wanted to change it was the tuning I wanted to change and when I read Pique's book, "Grand Obession", I thought why can't that sound be on my piano. I have always thought pianos were too complex for the type of music I like to play and I love it when I hear a piano/keyboard that play tones that are less brilliant but very, very pure. This wasn't a voice issue, it wasn't just warmth that I was wanting it was sound and pure sound.

Each thread started has the opportunity to be rated by members. By stars. You can see them on each thread. One star *, bad; Two stars, a little better; all the way to 5 stars*****, which might be a particular thread of interest to those looking at the threads since this one might be of high interest and with several posts from members stating something of particular interest about that thread.

Those threads which might have answers like, 'Buy me', 'bad piano', etc without anything saying why the poster mentioned that, are not very valuable to the consumer looking at the thread.

Those that say, "Hey, this is a great piano in my opinion because of thus, thus and thus" are of better benefit to this piano community.

So, when a thread gets a one star * when there is only the initiated thread (with no discussion yet posted) I object to it. And this is what happened to your thread, immediately. You got a one star. Immediately.

It is not fair you as the OP (original poster), nor to those reading it in the future.

And there seems to be ONE member who does this regularly and repeatedly, without one post about WHY s/he objects to the initial thread.

I am now calling s/he the JERK who posts a one star without a reason as to why.

Do I expect a backlast from s/he on each post that I might initiate? Yes, but one must make a stand somewhere and hopefully the system will change.

PLU,

If you want to have some fun, head over to the Tech forum and do a search for "temperament."

Much of it is technical, but there are discussions about how different tunings affect the "sound" of pianos.

Thanks Lily lady, but where do I find the star?

Libby,

It's great that this worked out. Did your tuner not wish to have his/her name given in the forum? It sounds like you have made a nice endorsement of a good technician without the name!

The stars show up in the main forum list. The subject starts with no stars at all, but if someone reads it they can click the "Rate It!" box at the bottom of this page, and rate the thread.

This thread has been boosted back up some by the kind people reading it. I think LiliLady must have been burned by someone before.

Hey, let's call the guilty party the "Lone-Star Jerk" :-)

Oh, one other thought . . .

You may not have Pique's tuning, but most importantly - you have a tuning that YOU enjoy!

Don,
That was quite clever!!!
The "Lone-Star Jerk"

Hi Don, I did mention his name in my thread. It's Mike Jalving.

Don can you tell me more of what Mike did in case he moves or something I can let someone else know the kind of tuning I like. All I know is that's a 2:1 ratio. I'd appreciate your comments Don.

Also, thanks everyone for your votes. I had no idea there was such a thing. I can't imagine determining if I want to read a thread based on what others think of it. I pick threads to read based on the title.

Thank you

Hi Libby,

Sounds like a nice tuning. I'm curious....was it achieved with a device, or by ear?

And what type of piano do you own?

And before the beauteous bloom of the tuning goes south, I'd love to hear a clip of you playing the music you love on your freshly tuned piano!

Hi Dave,

Mike did it all by ear. He never uses a device and is aparently quite talented. I own a grand 5'9" piano and I do not/cannot record at this time.

I can only try to describe to you the sound and after numerous years of a "regular" tuning with or without an electronic device, this new tuning makes the piano sound like all the notes are merging with each other instead of fighting each other. It's as if all the harmonics compliment each other rather than just a bunch of notes competing for which overtone is the strongest.

I know that tunings really only last a few hours at the most, but I religiously get my piano tuned 4-5 times a year. The piano was in pretty good tune when he came, so I think it made it easier for him to "customize" the sound. It's definately at A440 and like I said he just made the harmonics sing together. Hope this helps.

Hi Libby,

One can do a fine job with an ETD, but even with the modern devices, it's necessary to use one's ears--sometimes in conjunction with an ETD--to do the best possible work.

Thanks for the description.

Agraffe, or Dave Stahl, is this type of tuning possible on an upright?

Libby - that's the best outcome to expect after finding a tech that would listen to you and adjust the tuning approach!

I'm reasonably sure that he did not place Pique's tuning on your piano... It is a particular approach, not just a narrow (2:1 octave) tuning.

(quick digression, strings vibrate, sounding multiple tones, even though we only normally percieve one pitch - Those tones are arranged in a particular order and allow "matchups" when two notes are played together. Tuners, by listening in a specific way can adjust the tuning to match different tones. The 2nd partial of the bottom note matched with the 1st partial of the top note of an octave makes a 2:1)

So, why do I guess that you don't have the "Shubert concert tuning"? Remember in the book how she helped to measure the tuning so that her local tech could replicate the sound? I was able to study those numbers based on a local Grotrian of the same size. With that I've come up with a custom tuning approach using the Verituner that I'm happy to share with any tech. I can translate it into "aural techspeak" if any tech wants to contact me.

While this approach can be used on any piano, each one brings it's own individual characteristics into play...

Ron Koval