a newbie at bat

JIMRPT@AOL.COM JIMRPT@AOL.COM
Mon, 17 Jan 2000 07:56:34 EST


In a message dated 1/16/2000 10:58:02 PM, Les B. wrote:

<< a lot happened, both good, and
questionable, and I need to know more than I do the "next" time this
happens.>>

Les;
 We all "need to know more than we do" cause the next time will happen :-)
Sounds like you did good though cause being played "hard" for three or four 
hymns ain't the same as being played hard for a concert series 'four' times!

<<" (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.)">>
  Oh Bullfeathers....how do you think the "truly good tuners" got that way ? 
Besides it sounds as if you did good boy......

<<" I heard only one octave tonight that seemed not to hold, and one unison 
bothered me, both notes on the Kawai.">>
  Like a football coach watching a football game you weren't listening to the 
music, you were listening to individual notes.........this is why I detest 
having to sit through performances using instruments I have tuned, I let the 
'notes' get in the way of the music :-)

<<"I'd appreciate thoughts regarding,
a) the relatively low pitch at start, and instability this morning">>
 Absolutely normal given the service history of these pianos.

<<"b) guesses as to how much the humidity might have changed a reasonably
stable tuning.">>
 A bunch, particuarly if you  succumb to the anal paralysis of your first duo 
"concert" 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.">>
 Yeah you should have, but so what?  Which of the 176 keys would you have 
guessed would stick? And under what conditions?

<<"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.">>
Bill for the work you did.

<<"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?)">>
 Well sure, you should have had 'concert seasoned' pianos but even if the 
guys had brought their own pianos there would have been problems with 
stability 'off the truck'.

I think Ron N. said it all when he said 
<<"The next one will be easier, even if it's worse. Congratulations,
Ron N">>
Jim Bryant (FL)





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