prices for tuning in your country?

[Brian Trout]

Hi Karen,

I've enjoyed seeing where this thread has gone. 
Lots of food for thought.

And to some extent, I can agree that, at least
for some, hiring the professional to do the job
can be the best way to go, leaving us to do what
we're best at.

But...

I can't say that I've followed that practice in
my personal life, and when I have, there have
been many times I've been disappointed.  The
"professionals" don't usually know what we THINK
they know.

For those who are adventurous enough to get our
hands dirty and our minds in gear, there's a lot
of stuff in our everyday lives that we are quite
capable of.  

For an example, my wife's van has had some drops
of oil on the garage floor over the last couple
of weeks.  I didn't think too much about it but
my step-daughter just couldn't leave the subject
alone since the van was going to "self destruct"
if she didn't take it back to the place that
changed the oil and DEMAND that they fix it
IMMEDIATELY!!  I tightened the oil drain plug
1/16 of a turn.  No a drop since.  There's a
little more to the story, but you get my drift.
(I'd change the oil myself if she would let me,
but it has something to do with documenting
proper maintenance for warranty purposes.  But
that's not where I was going with this one.)

I could come up with quite a few more examples of
where the "professionals" didn't really know as
much as we give them credit for knowing, but this
post would get awfully long.

My point is that it's really not so hard to do a
lot of things.  I can fix minor things that go
wrong on the car.  I can fix a hole in the wall
where it was accidentally broken.  I can fix a
ceiling fan that won't run so good anymore.  I
can put some new shingles on a roof.  And in many
of those situations, I can do as good a job or
better than most of the people I'd hire to do it.
 (AND MY WHOLE POINT IS THAT YOU MAY VERY WELL BE
ABLE TO, TOO!!!)

(Actually, just this past weekend, I took a
closer look at the roof on our house.  I was
shocked to see how bad it was, not because of
weather, but because of a poor installation.  It
was done by professionals.  I wouldn't be caught
doing that poor of a level or work.)  

Is it economical?  Maybe, maybe not.  We don't
want to shortchange ourselves by charging too
little for our work.  But I can't help but think
we sometimes shortchange ourselves by not
believing in our own intelligence and abilities.

If you really don't have the ability or the
desire, by all means, hire someone who does.  But
I'll have to tell you, one of the reasons I am
where I am in piano work is because no one told
me I couldn't do what I'm doing.

Some food for thought...

(Jumping down off my soap box now.)

Back to work...

Brian


--- Kgj38@AOL.COM wrote:
> I'd rather tune a piano safely on the ground
> than climb on my roof any day!  
> IMHO, paying someone to do what we ourselves
> find frightening, repugnant or 
> don't know how to do is worth every penny.
> 
> Karen Johnson


=====
Brian Trout
Grand Restorations
3090 Gause Blvd., #202
Slidell, LA  70461
985-649-2700
GrandRestorations@yahoo.com

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