In a message dated 2/27/00 4:03:28 PM Central Standard Time, dporritt@swbell.net writes: << I too have done 10 in one day a few times. However, I was a lot younger. My body just won't do 10 any more! dave >> There is one other day of the year that I do ten pianos, at a Lutheran Church & School at the end of October when the teachers have a day of inservice training and the kids have the day off. I have maintained the same pianos with the exception of the new Walter Studio (now 10 years old) for 22 years. I have always done my best on them, especially when I first got that contract in 1978. It used to take me both days that were available, a Thursday and a Friday. I have cleaned every one 3 times, tightened, aligned and regulated each one at least twice, made small repairs, filled hammers on a few, glued back on ivories on a couple of the old uprights they have. By this time however, this is one of the few places where I can really get a piano in tune with one pass and a strip mute. There are usually a few which need some special attention and they get it. The Walter piano in the sanctuary gets tuned more often and is therefore off pitch while the others are always very close to where they were last year. I really don't want to know what they must sound like in July and August but no one uses them then anyway. But they must be pretty bad when school starts and get bad again in January and February but recover nicely by the end of the semester. It takes me the usual 45 minutes for the Walter and sometimes barely 20 minutes for many of the others. I go home early on the day in October when I tune ten pianos. Usually about 3:30 p.m. Yet Richard has a point. To compare this to what I would do on a concert grand for a concerto or for the recital of one of the manufacturers is not like comparing an apple to an orange but more like comparing a bowl of breakfast cereal to a 16 ounce cut of prime rib. They are entirely different circumstances. Yet each one can have its own set of appropriate tolerances and both be done more than just satisfactorily. I think that is why I got paid before I was even finished. Bill Bremmer RPT Madison, Wisconsin
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