Pitch Raise Fee Structure

[Stephen Airy]

When I raised my Ricca & Son 100 cents, I raised some of the middle 
strings, then had to move the piano to my house, then raised the rest of 
it.  I made a couple passes a few days later in the high treble which was 
around 30 cents flat in the top 2 1/2 octaves.


At 10:30 AM 12/16/00 -0700, you wrote:
>Hi Terry,
>My rate is 100% x fee for a pitch raise to be followed in a month with a
>string seating and fine tune after a month. This amounts to two tunings and
>I feel leaves the piano much more stable and will hold for regular yearly
>tunings.
>A pitch raise, for me can be one or two passes depending on the piano and
>how far off the piano is off with itself. And how good I out guess the
>situation with my SATlll.
>Many times I will return to the instrument to find that the bass is dead on,
>the tenor 2 to 5 cents off and the upper treble 15c flat after string
>seating.
>Joe Goss
>imatunr@primenet.com
>http://www.primenet.com/~imatunr/
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Farrell <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
>To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
>Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2000 9:08 AM
>Subject: Pitch Raise Fee Structure
>
>
> > Hi List Again! How do you folks charge for pitch raising? - Per pass? Per
> > amount flat? One flat (no pun intended) fee?
> >
> > I have been charging half my tuning fee per pass required. That is, a 30
> > cent pitch raise would be one pass and total charge for pitch raise would
>be
> > 0.5 x tuning fee. A 100 cent pitch raise on a 50 year old piano might be
>two
> > passes on bass and tenor and three passes on treble for a total of 2-1/2
> > pitch raises and a fee of 1.25 x tuning fee.
> >
> > The trouble with this structure is that it can be somewhat subjective as
>to
> > how many passes is required for any given piano, and I can't really state
>a
> > firm fee over the phone, i.e. "lady, if your piano is a quarter step flat
>it
> > will cost $X" - I have to go into this protracted explanation about piano
> > age, string corrosion, etc.
> >
> > I have thought it might be better to just state "I charge $X per cent
>flat."
> > For me in my local and situation, $1 per cent would work well. It would
> > cover me for the nasty pianos - the older ones with corroded strings. I
> > would likely give a little discount for a newer piano - for instance, one
> > that was 60 cents flat - it would likely only require one pass and I would
> > only charge my old one-pass fee.
> >
> > The problem I see with this system is again the phone thing. Me: "I charge
> > $1 per cent flat". Customer: "What is a cent". Sounds like a can of worms
>to
> > me.
> >
> > Waddayoufolksdo?
> >
> > Terry Farrell
> > Piano Tuning & Service
> > Tampa, Florida
> > mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com
> >
> >


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