close enough>??

[John Musselwhite]

At 09:02 AM 24/01/03 -0600, Conrad wrote:

>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?

Why charge extra for it at all? Since you're already doing two passes (on 
the understanding that two quick passes are more effective than one slow 
one) just do the pitch correction then the pass for the final tuning and 
explain to the customer about the need for proper service or humidity control.


>Big pitch raises on those once-a-decade tunings are no-brainers.

Indeed. You'll probably have asked when the piano was last tuned and if it 
was more than a few years ago or they don't remember, have prepared them 
for an extra charge.

>Where and (more importantly) _how_ do you draw the line?

I draw the line at two passes. If I figure that it'll take three or more 
then it's extra regardless of the pitch. My customers are always told in 
advance if it will take an extra pass through it and that there's a 15 
minute extra charge for it unless strings break.

                 John


John Musselwhite, RPT    -     Calgary, Alberta Canada
http://www.musselwhite.com  http://canadianpianopage.com/calgary
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