alaskafived piano

All,

Just tuned my piano in quasi- Alaska5. Quasi, because I
didn't use flattened octaves. However, I did use an
electronic tuner, and enforced 1200-cent unstretched
octaves. So they are flatter than they'd usually be on
a piano. Observations:

() It sounds a lot better than it did.

() This piano is a piece of &*#*@).

() I still had to touch it up at the end. Really, a
bearing plan is the only way to tune. Every string is
different. Perhaps one of the more expensive digital
tuners (such as www.verituneinc.com) can really do the
job. I haven't tried one.

() It would be better to apply a real stretch formula
to Alaska 5 rather than just attempting pure octaves
everywhere. Hmmm... how to keep the tuning procedure
from getting unwieldy when you can't rely on beatless
octaves. . .

() I used a Peterson V-SAM. Not recommended. I'm
returning it. While they got a lot right, this tuner
has the following limitations:

() No volume control for the audio output!
It's unusably loud.

() Only 2 user-programmable tunings!

() Not really readable over the claimed range, at
least on piece-of-*$*($# pianos.

() Does not support stretched/contracted octaves.

() The plastic used on the blue rubber boot has a
noticeably foul smell.

-Carl