I'm glad that the article touched upon the nature vs nurture thing, and also found that the conclusion rang true that such persons did receive training by age 7. I've known many persons with perfect pitch, and they all started very young. No exception in my experience.
I've also encountered persons with varying levels of perfect pitch, if that sounds oxymoronic. I knew a cellist/pianist that could only pull the "white keys" from thin air, and a guitarist who could nail any pitch, as long as it was a "good day". Others have just had truly perfect pitch, including a concert mistress I used to date.
However, Im honestly not sure if perfect pitch helps tune an instrument at all. I've noticed such a person not tune their instrument perfectly until being told so by another with only relative pitch. Maybe Dave's father also had great 'relative pitch' in order to get a piano perfectly out-of-tune, for that's what a piano is (temperament). My thoughts.
Random, funny side story about piano tuning. My best friend tuned his own piano recently (he's taken classes in temperaments, tunings) and he wore a hockey mask because he was afraid of the old strings breaking and blinding him! HAHA
An easier way to pull a pitch from thin air for those us limited to only relative pitch is to simply become familiar with the lowest note that you can very comfortably sing. And just go up from there.
