"Where and (more importantly) _how_ do you draw the line?" Evaluate each situation. In the one you describe, I would not go through note by note with the customer. I would simply say the piano needs one pitch raise to get it up to standard pitch, and then a good tuning. That will be a total of $115. I don't charge for PR for less than 5 cents, even though I may go through the piano twice. Between 5 and 10 cents off is where I start charging. If the whole keyboard is between the 5 and 10 cents, I would likely charge my half-PR fee. I try to be as consistent as I reasonably can, but there is definately a large grey area there. I have often considered quoting $1 per cent flat for everything over 2 to 5 cents flat (an average of all the Cs perhaps). And then when done, if the fee adds up to more than $60/hour, I might cut it back to $60/hour. But then nobody knows what a cent is and that makes the whole thing difficult to detail. It is easier to simply say the the piano is a quarter-step flat and needs a pitch raise. Terry Farrell ----- Original Message ----- From: "Conrad Hoffsommer" <hoffsoco@luther.edu> To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: Friday, January 24, 2003 10:02 AM Subject: Re: close enough>?? Friends, I've been lurking on this discussion, and been having my curiosity piqued. A collateral question formed in my alleged brain. I know about pitch raises, I just finished one. (Details below) I know from previous threads that some tuners charge a per cent surcharge for pitch raises - some beginning at 2¢. The piano which I just tuned (1971 Yamaha P2E) had (according to RCT) a pitch of 440.4Hz @ A4. This is just less than 2¢. So, according to the above criterium, it should be a standard tuning. Right? HA! Wrong... Maybe if it were the Hamburg D which I tune every week. IT NEEDED A PITCH RAISE. The bass section was 8-23¢ flat, the first two plain unisons were -23¢ and -40¢ with the pitch getting to within 4¢ by about F4 and staying there until above the treble break where it went to a fairly constant -15/20¢. How you gonna charge for this? Average the cents deviation? Pick a note at random? Use a dartboard? Do you have to wait until you are done and _then_ show the customer the record of overpulls? Big pitch raises on those once-a-decade tunings are no-brainers. Where and (more importantly) _how_ do you draw the line? Conrad Conrad Hoffsommer - Music Technician Luther College, 700 College Dr., Decorah, Iowa 52101-1045 Vox-(563)-387-1204 // Fax (563)-387-1076(Dept.office) - People never grow up, they just learn how to act in public. -Bryan White _______________________________________________ pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
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