The novice

[Richard Brekne]

Terry... dont assume that just because a tuner has passed all his/ her  tests
that this means they go out and meet the world with every thing they can offer
it every day. As in any trade we have some who nearly always do the best they
can, some who do well enough but not up to what they really can, and some who
end up just not giving a hoot. Just dont you be one of those last mentioned.
Preferebly be one of the first kind.

Further its difficult at best to be sure that the example you mention below has
anything to do with the previous tuner. Sure one is tempted to think so but
pianos are if anything something that never ceases to amaze behavioir wise.

In the end, the only thing that really matters is how much you learn, and how
well you use what you have learned as time goes by. If you do end up getting
better results then the next guy... well hey !! YOU ARE A SUCCESS !!.. grin. Let
it be at that and you will be a happy camper.

Farrell wrote:

> > "a note 12 cents sharp might be next to a note 15 cents flat.....attribute
> that to a "tooner"
> > who had no idea what he was doing.  Am I right?"
>
> It is scary. But I know for a fact that I have followed RPTs at tuning a
> piano by less than two weeks and found notes that were 10 cents sharp right
> next to a note 10 cents flat - beat rates and an AccuTuner indicated this
> (this is a piano that the same person had been servicing twice a year for
> many years). The client showed me their receipts. They said it sounded bad
> right after the dude "tooned" it. I can only assume that the "tooner" (who
> KNEW what he was doing) deliberately made the decision to do a quicky sloppy
> tuning because the client didn't play paino all that well, or the piano was
> not of sufficient quality, and the client would not be able to tell. (Maybe
> a severe hangover? Maybe an undiagnosed medical condition?) I don't know -
> scary and sad.
>
> Terry Farrell
> Piano Tuning & Service
> Tampa, Florida
> mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Clyde Hollinger" <cedel@supernet.com>
> To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2000 7:10 AM
> Subject: The novice
>
> > Friends,
> >
> > I am taking this post in a different direction.  Sometimes on the first
> > visit to a client I find the tuning so strange that I think a novice must
> > have tuned it the last time.
> >
> > For example, yesterday I tuned a spinet that I had last tuned in May,
> 1991,
> > but the client assured me that someone else tuned it in 1998.  It had been
> > moved to a son's house and back.  Before I started, the bass was up to 11c
> > sharp, the treble was up to 28c flat, but what I found unusual was that a
> > note 12 cents sharp might be next to a note 15 cents flat, and this
> occurred
> > throughout although mostly in the center section.
> >
> > When whole sections of the piano are uniformly out of tune, I can easily
> > account for that, but when a section has differences of up to 25 cents on
> > adjacent notes, I can only attribute that to a "tooner" who had no idea
> what
> > he was doing.  Am I right?  I decided it was prudent not to express my
> > thoughts to the client.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Clyde Hollinger
> >
> >
> > > If I were to encounter a piano that had been just tuned to an historical
> > > temperment I'm sure I'd think that the piano had been tuned by a novice.
> > >
> > > Tom Ayers
> >
> >
> >
> >

--
Richard Brekne
Associate PTG, N.P.T.F.
Bergen, Norway