Hi Beth,

As long as it takes to tune it. Organs sometimes need to settle, but not
harpsichords. The differences in string tensions between any two given
temperaments are negligible in any case - you are talking about tiny cents
differences.

Amusingly, on Werckmeister III, Herr Werckmeister himself wrote that this
is not a particularly good tuning, but more a way of converting an organ in
meantone into a halfway good sort of well temperament with the least
cutting of pipework. It was never seriously proposed as an excellent
harpsichord tuning. I recall Mr Paul Poletti has written about this, and
provided the original German source.

It's a pretty miserable sounding tuning to my taste, and I roll my eyes
when amateur groups insist on it. How about trying some superior tuning?
Lehmann?

Andrew

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