At 07:42 PM 1/17/97 +0000, Barrie Heaton wrote: >You will never win the battle convincing aural tuners that visual tuners >are better or even equal. This is due to forte per cent are ill informed >and sixty per cent have a justified worry. I disagree, as a previous message of mine mentioned. The "battle" is over and everybody won. >It is the Johnny come lately chappy, who buys a cheap ETD and sets >himself up as a part time de-tuner at weekends. Tuning pianos for >fifteen dollars, this is the tuner who worries most aural tuners. This They shouldn't be particularly worried about them if we have done our job properly. You shouldn't trust your valued instrument to someone who has no credentials just as you wouldn't give your pocket watch to someone whose only tool is a hammer. Besides... if a person is happy with that level of service I don't particularly want them as a customer. There are others out there who are serious about their instruments and make better clients than the once-every-20-year types who hire the $15 tuner. >is the tuner with a ETD that is viewed by most of the tuners in the U.K. That's a public relations matter, as we shall see... >who wishes to make a bit of money on the side. If the media latches on >to the tune off's and there is nothing to fill the end of their news >cause no politicians have been caught with their Secretaries lately. >You can imagine the head lines. great Tune off in States of what ever, <sigh> With a picture of two naked women at a piano holding a SAT and a tuning fork on Page 3. >whatever, and in England now prove conclusively that ETDs are far >superior than the human ear. Some bright spark then starts advertising >in your National press earn extra money at weekends by my kit learn to >tune pianos in a weekend only two hundred dollars. Not likely in my opinion, although something like that is possible. I would suggest that rather than attempting to fight new technology those on the other side of the pond should begin a quiet education campaign that eases public opinion into the idea that ETDs are merely tools and ANY service on a complex and expensive instrument like a piano should be done by someone who understands how those tools are used, whether they use them personally or not. >Who will suffer the most? the visual tuner, or the aural tuner. It There really is no difference. On the whole, visual tuners are aural tuners as well and the ETD becomes just another tool at our disposal.. >will be the public. However, the aural tuner will suffer, but the No tuner needs to "suffer". All we need is better PR. >visual tuner will suffer more, as they will have educated there >client's in to the beauties of ETDs. So when the advertisements appear Just as snake-oil salesmen used to do. The public needs to be educated that there is a big difference between a guitar tuner and a SAT or CyberTuner. >in your local press have your piano tuned by ETD scientifically proven >in field tests at PTG Conventions to be far superior than aural tuning. On our continent a PTG member explicitly can NOT advertise as such and in fact, truth in advertising laws would be in effect because the ETD doesn't tune the piano, the tuner does. What the field tests have NON scientifically shown is that it's a tool like any other, not some panacea. >And you won't be able to stop them because the law under advertising has >not been broken. As far as the general public is concerned the little >cheap guitar tuner is just the same as the mighty SAT until the tuner >has gone. Then look at the damage done to ETD reputation. > >What a black and sad picture. Then before it happens get on with the PR. Make sure everyone knows that guitar tuners are for guitars whereas ETDs designed for the piano are scientific instruments - tools for the technician just as heart monitors and > Like our colleagues in Sweeden we have a very rigid college based >training schedule, totally dedicated to aural tuning. In the U.S. you >seem to be geared up more for distant learning. Which lends itself very >nicely to the use of ETDs. This continent is also geared up toward science and the latest and greatest scientific devices. However, the most sophisticated scientific machinery is just a pile of useless junk in the wrong hands. >The picture may change here in the U.K. as the colleges are finding it >increasingly difficult to obtain funding for students on piano tuning >courses. Possibly we will go down the same road as you with more >distant learning programmes to fill the need for tuners. I hope that >day will never come, however, if that day does come ETDs will play a >bigger role in the tuning of pianos in the U.K. They will eventually come to play a bigger role anyway, so why not start now? When asked about them at any time, emphasize that they are merely tools and there is a big difference between a high-quality scientific instrument and a cheap tuner. The worst thing you could do is to dismiss them out-of-hand or emphasize their supposed faults because some day it will catch up to you and everyone will indeed lose. Also, rather than emphasize mere "tuning", make sure customers and potential customers understand the value of "service" and the experience it requires to perform it. Piano service is so complex and requires such a variety of talents that the weekend "gunslingers" are soon weeded out anyway. But the largest benefit with an ETD such as the SAT is not a better tuning but often a more efficient one. The combination of aural and visual tuning is far less tiring than one or the other, meaning you can do more tunings in often difficult situations without burning out. It may often help save a few minutes on the tuning, which can be spent doing minor adjustments without interrupting your schedule. Tool-handling skills and proper training are becoming more important every day and with that come credentials. These days when crime and con-men seem to be common, the public should be made aware that they are at risk from many sources if they let someone in their home who doesn't have the proper credentials. I hope that gives you some other ideas about how to handle this so-called "war". An ETD is just a very expensive tool that sits there blinking until the skilled hands, ears and eyes of the technician make proper use of it. John Musselwhite, RPT Calgary, Alberta Canada musselj@cadvision.com
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC