fun at the piano store!

[Charly Tuner]

Hi all,

Well, I just finished logging my FIRST month as a floor tuner! All's going 
great with 65+ pianos tuned in that time. I've been averaging about 15+ 
pianos per week , 4 days per week. About 1/3 include a pitch raise. In this 
time I have also been asked to regulate and/or make minor repairs in some of 
our older trade-in stock, as well as some our new "less than top of the line 
models" which has been a real education!
About a week ago, I tuned a new Yamaha C5, and after I was finished, I 
played it for a while and made sure it was stable, and sought out any stray 
unisons and so on. i left that piano in solid tune. I reported for work, as 
usual this past Monday, only to be asked by the General Manager: "Are you 
making sure that you 'set the pins' when you're tuning?" Now I thought this 
was a silly question, tantamount to asking a limo driver if he "remembers to 
disengage the emergency brake before he starts driving" but I said that I 
did, indeed. He then informed me that the SAME C5 (which I had tuned), was 
now sounding "terrible", so he had the other tuner (who is much more 
experienced than I, "re-tune" it. I thought to myself.."oh boy, this does 
NOT make me look good." But I COULD NOT understand how a piano could "go 
out" so fast! Yes, there is NO climate/humidity control of ANY kind, but 
still the piano should not have gone out so fast. So...YESTERDAY I walked 
into the (cold) studio where it is on display and decided to play each note 
on the piano; chromatically from A0 to C8..GUESS WHAT??? almost EVERY UNISON 
WAS O U T !!!!!!!!!!!! AGAIN! I immediately brought this to the attention of 
the manager, hoping this would prove that my tuning was/is NOT suspect 
afterall! He was a bit surprised, but it was clear that, for whatever reason 
that piano went out of tune only days after EACH of us had tuned it, the 
culprit was not bad tuning, but either the piano itself not holding, or more 
likely because of wide fluctuations in temperature and humidity.

Terry


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