Potential Customers

[Matt Wynne]

At 09:38 PM 8/31/02 -0400, you wrote:
>There are many different types of piano owners. There are some that are 
>true students of the piano, and play for their own enjoyment, and others, 
>who just want a piece of furniture to decorate their living room. 
>Therefore, the students naturally want theirs to be kept in tune, while 
>the others couldn't care less. I remember a client that called me for a 
>service call a few years ago, to fix a sticking key. When I got there, and 
>went over the piano, it was so badly out of tune that it hurt my ears. I 
>fixed the problem, and then asked her when was the last time she had her 
>piano tuned. She stated that not since she bought it 30 years ago, but 
>that it sounded good to her, and she has a good ear!! I collected my fee 
>for easing her sticking key, and left, knowing that she would not want to 
>pay for 3 or more pitch raisings to stabilize her piano.
>
>So, like beauty is all in the eyes of the beholder, sound is also in the 
>ears of the listener. When tuning, what may sound real good to you, might 
>not sound good to the client. It just seems that some people like the 
>sound of wild unisons, and when they are cleaned up they seem to think 
>that it just doesn't sound right anymore. This pertains to 95% of the 
>piano owners, and not the 5% of the ones that are serious

I will demonstrate to a customer what in-tune and out-of-tune sounds like:

I find a really ripe trichord and have the customer listen to that compared 
to the same note with 2 out of 3 strings muted.  So far, everyone has heard 
the difference and agreed that the clean sound is better.  There is then no 
question that the piano needs to be tuned.

-Matt