After having read the posts about tuning "Under an hour" I would like to mention the following : As stated before in my posts to this list I too have tuned 'some' pianos. When I started as a 'professional' tuner it took me about 1,5 hour to tune a piano. On my very first real tuning day I tuned 5 pianos and was very tired afterwards. However, within a few years I tuned the required quotum of 7 pianos a day (for the boss) plus the extra 1 or 2 for myself. Average time per piano ? probably between 40-50 minutes excluding travel time and coffee. Then, after a long long time (about 13 years later), I received many new lessons on tuning more precisely and my tuning time again changed to about one hour. I now (after ± 30 years) tune for the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and everybody understands that a tuning there must be of the highest quality and! ROCK STEADY as there are those pianists who, after having performed what they have to perform, leave the piano behind in a W shape (if you know what I mean(?). It never takes more than 1 hour and I have never received one complaint about either an ugly tuning or strings going 'out' after serious 'banging'. I thought that was/is quite normal for a pro, so what to think about spending hours and hours on just one tuning when my own tuning stays in very good shape during a 'dinosaur treatment'? friendly greetings from Antares, Amsterdam, Holland "where music is, no harm can be" > From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com> > Reply-To: pianotech@ptg.org > Date: Sat, 4 Aug 2001 19:39:06 -0400 > To: <pianotech@ptg.org> > Subject: Re: Under an hour tuning (was labor rates) > > "Concert pianos on stages and console pianos in living rooms are not the same > kinds of instruments. I know, for example that when I am going to tune a > Steinway grand in someone's home, the time I spend will be much more, maybe > even double." > > Is that because a Steinway grand is harder to tune? Do you charge 50% for the > console? I don't understand your policy here. Please clarify. If my auto > mechanic did a significantly better tune-up on my neighbor's new Lexus than on > my 18-year-old car, I would not be happy with him/her at all. Is this what is > going on here? > > Terry Farrell > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Billbrpt@AOL.COM > To: pianotech@ptg.org > Sent: Saturday, August 04, 2001 1:58 PM > Subject: Re: Under an hour tuning (was labor rates) > > > > > > A tuner who does a cheap job in an hour or so, may well leave the piano > sounding quite good, but in all probability it will deteriorate within a > few hours, days or weeks. > > > I copied this phrase from the website it was suggested to visit. That is > precisely my point about presenting the EBVT or any other tuning at the > Convention. 45 minutes is just enough time to set oneself up to ridicule. > Any of the tunings I did for the Baldwin recitals took 6-8 hours. I lost > track of the many hours I put in on the Walter piano on which the EBVT was > presented at the Convention in Providence. > > Even in the response article I wrote about this event, I conceded that > perhaps I was the "winner" of the event more because I had the best sounding > piano and had spent many, many hours tuning it before I had it locked in to > the program I had designed for it, each of the 88 notes accurate to within > 1/1000 of a semitone. And certainly, there were those who were disturbed by > and questioned my hours of relentless pounding. > > Yet, it's true that the ordinary, every day tunings I do usually take less > than an hour. Many of my customers are repeat customers for whom I have > tuned for many years. It simply doesn't take any longer than that and their > pianos also meet a very high degree of perfection in tuning, well beyond the > standards of the PTG Tuning Exam. > > Concert pianos on stages and console pianos in living rooms are not the same > kinds of instruments. I know, for example that when I am going to tune a > Steinway grand in someone's home, the time I spend will be much more, maybe > even double. Time spent on any particular tuning is all relative to the > circumstances. > > Tomorrow, I will go to the Frank Lloyd Wright estate to tune for the concert > series going on there now. It will take me about 30 minutes to tune the 9 > foot Bechstein grand. I know that because that's all the time it has taken > me for several years now but each note will be solidly locked on the program > I designed for that piano some 10 years ago. Then I have to tune the > harpsichord, (and that will probably take twice the time) then make the 35 > mile trip to meet my call as a principal singer and actor in the Bernstein > show, On The Town. Making the costume change from the first scene to the > next one I'm in takes about the same amount of time that it takes to tune the > Bechstein. > > As it turns out, the concert tuning I will do on the 9 foot Bechstein will > take the very least amount of time of all the activities I will do that day, > including showering and shaving. > > Bill Bremmer RPT > Madison, Wisconsin >
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