I tune 7 tones beatless to a digital synth , by ear , making sure the synth is warm.
I then do the rest by ear
Having tuned the 7 tones , with long tapered tines , left from middle C , the tuning has to be related to the force of striking , since the harder you hit , the lower the pitch is on impact. So you are tuning a time interval during which the octave is beatless , which occurs maybe about a second or so after impact...for tines left of middle C. In the decay the octave will be detuned again , and will now actually be to small , but the low volume will obscure the resulting beat. This is a matter of taste how you judge the lenght of interval of detuning on impact....and the closer you put the tines left from middle C to the pickups , the shorter the time during which the octave will be beatless. Thats another reason to massage all volume from a tine through perfect striking point , instead of shoving the pickups to close. (Besides pickup distortion)
When descending to the lowest tines , they get more flexible and thus more detuned on impact. The trick is to play not only one octave , but play 2 or 3 to check for tightness as you descend to the lowest notes. If you want that intro of the revered Tailfeather-Rhodes that is !!
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Right of middle C , where pitch is less affected by force of strike , I tune by ear to the speed of quints and quarts (and octaves) ....for the uninitiated... try to hear the speed of the quints and quarts on a electric piano digital sample. The higher the faster. A handy trick/check is that a quart and quint within the same octave beat with the same speed. Decimes can be used , and check how the quarts speed up on impact around middle C also.
Tuning like this by speed of interval beats will , in the end , give you the true satisfaction of just having fixed a clock.
No tuning will succeed with loose tuning springs , that has to be checked in the beginning. You really dont want to torture yourselve with those. I think small fingers are an advantage , so I invite Donald Trump for a tuning course at my place....gonna be huge with millions and millions of laughs.
I created a Rhodes a few years a year ago with solely 1974 midrange shorttapers for tonebar 16-53 and 1976
short tapers for the rest. These detune more notably than the aforementioned longtapers which are also used between 1970 and 1982. (In my most perfectionist moods I have selected from a bag of hundreds of tuning springs the tightest ones by judging the force required to shove them up and down a tine.More dull than it sounds.) This experiment was a bit of a failure since the 45-73 tonebar range was a bit to loud to be in balance with the rest , I mean from an attack-esthetic point of view.
I consider the new tine-configuration choice in 1974 a great idea , although complicating the hammertip glueing process , which was never mastered to the fullerton.
I never worked with Raymacs but my guess would be that these detune more on impact , comparable to short tapered tines.
Now I will blow my nose.
By the way , did any of you techs already figure out how to get the bark you hear on Herbie Direct Step CD ? Any suggestions?
For a final Zen-thought : in the end we all strive for the multiple zone of RHODESNESSNESS.