[ctuner] Does laptop heat affect tuning?

[Mark Schecter]

Jon Page wrote:
> Hmm, interesting perception. A minor heat source resting on a plate strut.
> Yes. it will have an effect, will it matter , NO.
> 
> I'd be more concerned about ambient room temperature fluctuations or
> the effects of stage lights on the strings.

Hi, Jon.

Well, it's interesting to me that you think ambient air and stage lights 
are significant (they are), but that heat from a laptop three inches 
from the strings isn't (I think it depends). This thread accidentally 
(my fault) jumped from CTuner (the CyberTuner list), but there's a post 
there from Tom Cole who thought that may explain what happened on his 
tuning this morning. He said,

"It doesn't take much to make strings go flat as you point out. It might 
explain why the Steinway "L" I tuned this morning, whose lower tenor 
notes were in tune when I began (many freebies), had all gone flat after 
tuning to the top. I had to retune from about C4 down to B2 before 
tuning the bass. Now I wonder if the tenor went sharp after I left."

This is exactly what I'm talking about. And it hasn't happened to me, 
that I've noticed, with my older, cooler but unhip laptop. I'm just 
wondering whether the newer, faster, hotter ones have crossed the line 
into being a heat problem.

If you're saying that heating the strut is not significant, I would tend 
to agree. But direct convective or radiant heating of the strings, I'm 
thinking could be a problem.

-Mark Schecter