At 10:35 AM 01/30/2001 -0500, you wrote: >I tuned for a church with almost precisely the same story (Kawai concert >grand, treble strings more often than bass). I gave up explaining that there >was no such thing as "too tight" if the piano was in tune. The "fault" will >be yours, no matter what temperament you use, because they would otherwise >have to admit that they a) made a poor purchase, or b) are not the skilled >musicians they conceive themselves to be. When I tried softening the hammers >a little, increasing the let-off a little, etc. I got the complaint that the >pianist had to hit the keys so hard to get a good volume that her fingers >hurt. ( I didn't soften it all that much.) Many years ago, a restaurant added a new piano player to their line-up. This guy started breaking treble wire since he thought he needed to hit the keys harder to get a sound, I hardened the hammers and the sound became louder and he played softer. String breakage approached zero. Jon Page >The bottom line is that there is no quick, easy solution; only expensive >and/or complicated ones. You can try to instruct them for a little while, but >if they don't listen after a while, you have to make it clear that they need >to pay you for the work that you did and wish the next tuner well. Less >heartburn in the long run. >I like the suggestion about having the pianist cover the cost of breaking >things in the piano. I'll remember that for the next time. >Sometime I'll tell the story of the pastor that got KO'd by a breaking bass >string. >John Stroup
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