Since I started this "many topics" I'm not sure whether I should prolong the agony by saying anything more, but here goes anyway. I do "bulk tuning" in Nov/Dec because in Nebraska that's the best time to tune pianos. I rarely have to pitch change, they will stay in tune longer after I'm done, and the end of the semester is when students and faculty need the best sounding pianos (that's not to say they don't always need good sounding pianos, but I have other jobs that need to get done). Having done a good job at that time of the year, the pitch variation through the rest of the year is not enough to raise the ire of the faculty. In some cases I have told a particular faculty member to wait a week and the piano will sound better. I also explain what humidity does to the instrument. The person waited; the piano improved. My image as god and prognosticator was maintained. I still believe that tuning a lot of pianos when the weather is at its hottest and "humidest" is still a "waste of time" as long as the piano is "usable." Of course, that's the debatable point. If this sounds like a defense, I guess it is. Sorry. Tuning is the part of my job I enjoy the most, so I'm not trying to get out of work-- just do it the most efficiently I know how. In regard to string breakage, one other factor that I haven't heard mentioned is the length of the upper strings. I understand that if a plate is carelessly installed, making the strings slightly longer (or is it shorter?), the strings are closer to the breaking point and more likely to suffer metal fatigue. Is this also a possibility? Richard West University of Nebraska
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC