To tune or not to tune?

[Farrell]

> I'm inspired by Denele Pitts Campbell's _Notes of a Piano Tuner_, which
> someone on the list recommended a while ago.

I think I can lay claim to be the one that brought her book up. Wonderful
reading. I read her book after ordering the Randy Potter course, and before
I started it. After reading it I knew that a career in piano technology
would be a good fit for me.   :-)   (I wish I could make that bigger!)

> How many of you have found yourself taking one of these jobs where there's
> no way you can do an acceptable job, but you know it'll be enough for the
> customer, and they will appreciate it? Just curious.

Seems to me most old uprights and many spinets fall into that
catagory......although I tuned a Steinway B (1949) and an L (1924) this
evening and found myself shouting (no one else was in the auditorium) about
what pieces of dung these instruments were, as I struggled with some (all)
unisons. Geez talk about horrible instruments. Not a clear note on either
one. Both play like Mack trucks (DW=70 & UW=20). My fingers were sore after
playing only a few scales after tuning. And the old ladies that play them
often comment what wonderful instruments they are......go figure (I'd like
to see what they think of the instruments if I took the Steinway decal off
the fallboard and put "STROUD" or some other no-name mfg. in there!).

Terry Farrell
Piano Tuning & Service
Tampa, Florida
mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Charles Neuman" <cneuman@phy.duke.edu>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2001 1:25 PM
Subject: Re: To tune or not to tune?


> I'm inspired by Denele Pitts Campbell's _Notes of a Piano Tuner_, which
> someone on the list recommended a while ago. She works in rural areas and
> sometimes does a less-than-perfect job if that's all the customer can
> afford and that's all the piano can handle. For example, on one piano she
> could only tune the middle two octaves, which would be enough for a kid to
> start learning piano. Of course, if the piano is truly untunable, then
> she'll refuse.
>
> How many of you have found yourself taking one of these jobs where there's
> no way you can do an acceptable job, but you know it'll be enough for the
> customer, and they will appreciate it? Just curious.
>
> Charles Neuman
> Plainview, NY
>