floor tuning job...

[James Radford]

Ron Nossaman

I think your advice is immediately helpful.  I'm a rebuilder who does
occasional tunings for friends and previous clients.  I spend at least two
hours on each one, trying to make it perfect the first time through.  I'm
definitely going to take your advice.

Jim Radford
Associate Member, PTG
Atascadero, CA
.>
>This isn't immediately helpful, but generally, it may be. Every new tuner I
>ever worked with has spent way too long, at way too fine a level of detail
>with their tuning. As a training experience, I've always recommended they
>charge through a
>tuning as fast as they can. If they take a full hour, they're wasting too
>much time on the petty details. I tell them they will feel like they are
>doing a TERRIBLE job, but not to slow down and "fix" anything until they
>are completely through the piano. Then, go back and check how it came out.
>Every one of the people I convinced to try this was convinced I was brain
>damaged for suggesting such a thing, but gave it a shot anyway. They were
>universally amazed that the finished tuning was much better than they had
>anticipated, and both their tuning speed, and the quality of their work
>improved in the next month. Most newbies spend way too much time trying to
>tune beyond the resolution of the pianos they are working on when they
>should be looking for the greatest return on sweat applied.
>
>I see everyday aural tuning as a sort of triage situation. You have to
>decide, as you go, which problems you can fix, and which you can't, and
>leave the dead where they lie. It's a matter of prioritizing effort against
>result, a hundred times a minute, and not wasting time chasing after the
>phantoms. Granted, this gets to be so automatic after a while that you
>aren't aware it's happening, and you one day realize that you have tuned
>most of a piano on auto pilot, while the rest of your brain cells were
>designing that new shop jig you have been thinking about recently. In
>situations where the piano is tunable beyond the level required for
>showroom floor stock, you have to give it more of your attention. In some
>tuning situations, you have to give it everything you have got or can
>borrow, but you can't waste that kind of effort in an average situation.
>
>This isn't to advocate sloppy work, just a call for conservation of
resources.
>
>FWIW,
>
>Ron N