Defending your tuning

[Geoff Sykes]

The guy is definitely hard of hearing. Unless he was looking directly at me
it appeared as though he couldn't hear me. And yes, I thought that not sharp
enough would have been a more believable complaint. 
 
Charging him my regular rate for a normal technically correct fine tuning,
followed by charging him extra, perhaps hourly, for the personalized "fine"
tuning afterwards is an idea worth thinking about. Thanks. 
 
 
-- Geoff Sykes
-- Los Angeles
-- www.ivories52.com
 
 
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of David Love
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2007 11:32 PM
To: 'Pianotech List'
Subject: RE: Defending your tuning



First question is how do you know that the tuning two months ago had
problems?  Things change in two months, sometimes less.  Or, maybe the
requirements of the owner left the previous tuner no choice but to leave the
piano in a less than ideal situation as you yourself experienced.  

 

Hearing loss often manifests itself in that area though generally the
complaint is that it is not sharp enough.  

 

If someone wants it stretched more or less I'm happy to accommodate them.
If they want to do a note for note custom tuning I'm not willing.  Life has
enough aggravation and is already too short.  If you insist on keeping them
as customers, charge double for a custom tuning without guarantees.  

David Love
davidlovepianos at comcast.net
www.davidlovepianos.com 

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Geoff Sykes
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2007 10:13 PM
To: Pianotech at Ptg. Org
Subject: Defending your tuning

 

Greetings all --

 

This afternoon I did a repair tuning on a Yamaha C3. By repair I mean that
the owner of the piano felt that the tuning from the previous tuner, two
months ago, left a lot to be desired. Once I checked it out I had to agree.
Anyway, I tune the piano up and make it all right again and the owner sits
down and plays it a bit when I'm done and complains that the treble,
especially the area around sixth octave, is sharp. OK, I pull out my trusty
Reyburn Cybertuner and double check the tuning, and it's right on. Just to
make sure, I put the ETD away and do aural checks all the way up from about
F5. Everything checks out good, but the owner still insists that it's sharp.
Since he's not complaining about every single treble note, but just a half
dozen or so, I strip mute the treble and work with him on each note that he
is unhappy with. Doing a number of checks, including some of his, I get to a
point where I just can't make the note any flatter and still claim the piano
is in tune. I'm bringing notes down so flat that they are full of fast beats
and the octave is just ruined, and he's still complaining that they sound
flat. By this time I've disagreed with him enough that he's starting to,
(finally), question his own perception. I suggest we leave it where it is
and when I come back for the next tuning I will make a point of reducing the
amount of stretch in the treble to as close to nothing as I can make it. He
says OK.

 

Rather than go through this again, as well as learn from the experience, I'm
looking for ways to work with a customer who is obviously hearing
incorrectly but who I, nevertheless, want to satisfy. Today's question: How
do you defend a tuning that you know, and can prove, is correct when the
customer says it is not?

 

-- Geoff Sykes

-- Los Angeles

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