anyone can buy a hammer and take out an ad

[Farrell]

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I would suggest a little bit of caution when judging someone else's =
tuning skills. No doubt, you are likely right that it was a poor tuning. =
But you never know, three weeks out.

I think I tune reasonable well. I tuned a little console at a church a =
while back. They called me a week later and said the pianist was =
complaining about the tuning. I went to check it out and thought they =
had switched pianos - way out of tune and 25 cents flat. After chatting =
a while longer I learned that the day after I tuned it they finally had =
their swamp-type air-conditioning system replaced with a modern =
lower-humidity-type air conditioning system. Aa-haaa!

My example above is extreme - no doubt. But my point is who knows what =
environmental or other factors affected things over the past three =
weeks. Maybe the piano was 200 cents flat before the tuning three weeks =
ago. Maybe the cat has been jumping on the strings. Maybe they store =
their music books on the strings.

Just my 2 cents worth (or not).

Terry Farrell
  ----- Original Message -----=20
  From: Piannaman@aol.com=20
  To: pianotech@ptg.org=20
  Sent: Thursday, April 08, 2004 12:21 AM
  Subject: anyone can buy a hammer and take out an ad


  A little whine with dinner,=20

  Yes, it's a free country.  Anyone can hang out a shingle and fish for =
business as a  "Toona."  =20

  I got a call about a hanging damper on a relatively new RX3 Kawai from =
a dealer.  I said that I'd go check it out.  I got the number of the =
customer, and it's a good hour drive to her house.  I asked her if she'd =
had the piano tuned recently.  She said, "yes, but he says he doesn't do =
any of the mechanical stuff." A hanging damper?  C'mon...=20

  She said she was happy with his tuning, but she needed the damper =
fixed.  Okay, I made the appointment, went out today and burnished a =
couple of tight guide rail bushings with teflon powder, then played the =
piano a bit to make sure everything was sound,which it was.  =20

  Sounded pretty bad, though, considering the three-week-old tuning.  I =
played a particularly gnarly bass octave for the lady and asked her if =
it sounded in tune.  "No," she said.  I re-tuned the bass(on principal, =
and in hopes of getting her biz in the future), then did a Tunelab check =
of the temperament.  The previous guy apparently asked her if she wanted =
a jazz, classical, or folk type temperament.  I was a bit curious after =
a thirds test revealed no proximity to ET.=20

  Tunelab wasn't kind to the man's work.  Not only was there no specific =
plan in the temperament, it was on the average about 9 cents flat.  "He =
said there would be some slippage, and he guarantees his work for 30 =
days..." said the nice lady.  I was doing a good job of refraining from =
negative comments, but it was a challenge.  She then said that "he =
doesn't really like this piano, mostly because of the plastic in the =
action."  And he doesn't like the modern generation of tuners who can =
"only tune by machine, and don't use their ears."=20

  Oh well.   He's only been in biz for 25 years.  =20

  Dave Stahl=20


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