Tuning “by ear” versus tuning with an electronic aid?
If a technician cannot tune a piano by ear, (known as an aural tuner), we believe that he or she has no business calling themselves a piano tuner. That being said, if that aural tuner does not utilize one of the sophisticated electronic aids, they will not do the best possible job. Piano tuning is a combination of art and science. The electronic aids are extremely helpful tools, especially for performing accurate pitch raises, and for maintaining consistency. Also, many of the devices can store the results of a specific tuning, so that once the “puzzle” of that instrument has been “solved,” we do not have to solve it again at every visit. Having a memorized frequency of where every string was last tuned on a specific piano, (which was determined with a combination of aural skills and electronic measurements) means that at subsequent tunings we can concentrate on techniques to increase tuning stability and improve tone.
