Hello all-----I had a traumatic time on Friday; I'm still affected by it today, Sunday, but I'm moving on. Tuned and did a complete voicing ten days ago on a Steinway D, early '80's, with 8-year-old Abel hammers, Renner shanks & whippens---hammers had been described as "hard to control" by the owner (a wealthy lady, very nice and smart, who has set up her house as a performance venue with the D and a Hamburg C next to it) and are scheduled to be replaced in late spring---the owner LOVED the tuning and voicing I had done, and had agreed that I would come back to tune and tweak the piano before the performance last night--Saturday-- by a rather famous performer and teacher. Friday was the only time we could both schedule the time.....***mistake #1***.....performance pianos should be worked on as close to the performance as possible.....So. I got there on Friday, met the artist---very kind, nice, self-effacing woman---heard her play; and we both agreed that the treble was strident, and the rest of the piano was pretty OK---perhaps a little on the bright side, but OK. She left for lunch, saying she would be back in 1.5 hours to help me with the voicing. Meanwhile, the owner told me how many hours the piano had been played since I tuned and voiced it last (about 15-20 relatively easy hours---not at concert force) and further told me that the piano would be played at least 4-6 hours before the performance, by the artist, AT concert force. OK then. I tuned the piano; the temperament was still almost perfect; the notes at the low end of the treble bridge had come loose a little; the whole capo section was slightly low; the bass unisons were subtly phasing. With the fresh tuning, the hammers sounded even more strident than they had. The tuning, with coffee break, had taken about 1.3 hours. I asked if the artist was back, was told not yet. ****Mistake #2****: never stick a needle in a hammer without the artist present, if at all possible. Let the artist play the freshly tuned piano---there may be a big enough psycho-acoustic illusion happening that they say---"it sounds great---you don't need to do anything else..." or they may say go ahead with the voicing. So---due to a combination of subtle ego and sincere confidence that I knew enough about this set of hammers, and Abels in general, to make a nice positve change, I started voicing. ***Mistaker # 3: never assume your preference in piano tone, or the owner's preference, in this case, is the artist's preference. I had in my mind the intent to serve the owner's tone perception. Sincere, and usually good, but wrong in that situation. I got the stridency out of the treble, and then the rest of the piano sounded a bit out of balance with the newly-voiced treble, so I went over the rest of the piano very lightly in my usual conservative way---mark the notes that don't fit their neighbors, make them fit their neighbors, and listen again. When I was done---maybe a half-hour later, the piano sounded, to me, very beautiful: golden and throaty at piano and mezzo, starting to snarl at forte, and snarling & snapping at double forte. I played it, and the owner and I oohed and aahed over the sound. In about 15 minutes (1.5 hours late) the artist returned, immediately sat down at the piano, played, and said, "what did you do to this?" I said, "I took the stridency out of the top, as we agreed, and then balanced the rest of the piano to the top." She said, "Well, you've killed the middle of the piano...." and I saw all the trust and good will leave her body, and leave the situation. She then made continual over-the-top, apocryphal statements about the piano being dead, the hammers being "gone," the "quality" being "gone out of the piano." I was freaking. Every statement she made about the piano was like a body blow, and I took it personally. I realized, with a sinking heart, that she would not be collaborative and work with me, through filing, pounding, ironing, or subtle lacquering, to get back the edge or snarl at low volume that she had liked. I was, as far as she was concerned, Typhoid Mary. I did the right thing; I did not yell, scream, or debate her; I took responsibility for my mistake, and offered to help in any way possible to rectify the situation. I offered to come back the next day---the day of the concert---hours before the concert on my dime and work with the piano----and actually, I knew the hammers would come up and be fine if she played them 4-6 hours. But SHE had zero trust in that. In her eyes, I was toast, and I knew her fear and panic would affect and probably engulf the owner. I don't expect to hear from the owner again. So, I felt bad for a day, then I moved on; I realized I did everything I could do, I acted in an honorable professional manner, and I took the hit. That's show biz. I will never stick a needle in a performance piano again without making my best efforts to have the artist with me. I will rededicate myself to being a conservative voicer. I will not allow an artist's fear, lack of trust, and ignorance about how a piano works to affect me so deeply. Hope this helps someone in some way........my best to all..... David Andersen Malibu, CA
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