Tuning in general

[Travis Gordy]

Hi Susan and Jim: You two are my  kind of tuner and my time is more like
Susan's. In Oklahoma I almost never tune a piano that does not require a
pitch change, at least from the B/T crossover to half way through octave
5. The only exceptions are those that I tune exactly one year from the
previous tuning. I love those because most strings are where I left them
the year before; same humidity as the year before. Those are the only
pianos I can have "perfectly" tuned and be on my way in less than an
hour. Same experience with pianos I haven't tuned for 4 or 5 years and
longer. I used to think it impossible for a piano to be that well in
tune after going through seasonal humidity changes for several years and
thought surely they had had others tuning, but I finally realized it is
not unusual, perticularly, I think, when the piano has been well
maintained during its first few years. (And some tuners charge according
to the number of years not tuned?)

I do not look forward to six month tunings which are usually major pitch
changes; up in the winter, down in the summer, for which I do not charge
regular customers extra. Must say the SAT pitch change feature has made
me a much happier tuner. Charge a new customer $80 even thought the SAT
has made it easier but that's the way you pay for the SAT.

Tuned a Kawai KG2D today in a church choir room. I tune it 4 or 5 times
a year as humidity changes begin to get to it. Turned on my SAT and it
showed LOW BAT., an shut down. Returned to my wagon for tempering strip
and pitch fork, set A4 to the fork then put it flat some to compensate
for the necessary pitch drop. Felt real good doing it the old way. I
strip from the B/T up to the T/T crossover, tune single strings up to th
T/T crossover then tune unisons from there on up.  Did not have to
change pitch today from about half way through octave 5 to the top, just
cleaned up unisons. Next removed the strip as I tuned unisons down to
the B/T. Made some checks to see that what I had tuned was where it
should be then tuned the bass which was only slightly sharp. Sounded
great and enjoyed every minute. Spent maybe an hour. Not sure. Did I end
up with A at 440? Not precisely, but not as sharp as violinest would
like. 
Cheers, 

Travis Gordy RPT

Susan Kline wrote:
> 
> Hello, Jim --
> 
> I also do two passes, most of the time, not quite so quickly as you do. (The
> whole tuning takes me more like 90 minutes.) The first pass just isn't a big
> deal,