a newbie at bat

[Steven Lewis]

Les,
I tuned for a concert for Stephen and Ovid just a week before Christmas.
They played at the church where I
am the pianist (Travis Ave. Bapt. in Ft. Worth).  We have a 10 yr. S&S D, and
I borrowed another D just like it.  They definitely should have had pianos of
that size for your situation.  I had to do a full tuning on
both the pianos 3 times that weekend--before a rehearsal on Saturday night,
the next morning when they played in the worship service, and again before
the Sunday night concert.  Stephen and Ovid are the
most gracious men.  I've tuned for concerts for them several times in the
past and they've always wonderful to work with.
Steven Lewis
Ft. Worth

Leslie W Bartlett wrote:

> This may get a bit wordy, so here's the subject:"My first real concert
> tuning".  I'm looking for information, as a lot happened, both good, and
> questionable, and I need to know more than I do the "next" time this
> happens.
>
> Stephen Nielson and Ovid Young- the artists.
> Memorial Drive UMC in Houston, the place, seating about 1000 in a huge
> cathedral celing room, into which were brought the Baldwin L and a KG3 on
> Thursday night.  I went over Friday and raised them about five beats to
> get them to hold at 440.(They had not been tuned in a year, and were
> moved from another building on the grounds, across a pea-gravel/cement
> walk, and up five steps)  Saturday went over and tuned them together. (No
> human humidity machines had been in the room by this time.)  Today they
> played four things at each of three services today, the room being mostly
> full at each service, and I went back over this afternoon to "touch
> things up".  At first run through, I was very disappointed in how things
> were.  After I watched these two men pound those poor undersized pianos
> for an hour, I was amazed things were as good as they were. (If I had
> known how heavy handed they played, I would simply have chickened out and
> gotten one of the truly good tuners in the city to do it.)   I had to
> restrip the pianos (sorry, I still use strips), and go through both again
> fully, though I only had to tweak the temperament on a couple notes on
> the L, and adjust accordingly on the KG3.  There were some octaves that
> were out as much as a couple of beats, except in the top, where both
> pianos still needed to be pulled up a bit.   I heard only one octave
> tonight that seemed not to hold, and one unison bothered me, both notes
> on the Kawai.  The church's organist said the pianos "sounded fabulous"-
> for which I was most appreciative.
>
> HOWEVER.   Several keys stuck tonight on the L.  They didn't stick during
> any of the tunings, even two hours before concert tonight, nor did they
> stick in any of the three services this morning.
>
> Now, the pianists and I all assume major humidity changes to be the
> culprit with the keys.  As with most churches, this place doesn't want to
> tune regularly, nor have any work done, except when it's "broke".
>
> I'd appreciate thoughts regarding,
> a) the relatively low pitch at start, and instability this morning
> b) guesses as to how much the humidity might have changed a reasonably
> stable tuning.
> c) should I have guessed keys might have stuck, though nothing indicated
> they would. .I'd even left them a note for the morning with my cell phone
> # in case anything showed up as problematic.
> d) billing........   In effect I did four tunings, plus the touch-ups
> required to tweak things as best I could, and I had get into the action
> to fix a slipping jack, and reset a hammerline which had become
> inconsistent over the years.
> e) These pianos are used as parlor pianos or perhaps in Sunday school as
> usual fare, not regularly tuned and used "hard".  Should I have insisted
> on tuning them once more (though time wouldn't have allowed it, to bring
> them more stability, given the starting pitch of about A-435?)
>
> No need to make this a public issue, taking up a lot of band width. It's
> an inexperienced tooner attempting to learn from the  unexpected.  I'd be
> glad if a few oldies would be willing just to drop me a bit of a note.
>
> I was rather tense through the evening, expecting at any moment strings
> to break, or notes to simply cease to exist.  They really needed
> 9-footers. Not having same, they attempted to make the little things
> sound like 9-footers.
>
> Thanks
> les bartlett
> houston
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