too picky about tuning

[David Nereson]

    Some customers are too picky about tuning, in my opinion.  As soon as one unison develops the least little "slow roll," they'll call up and say, "My piano has gone horribly out of tune."  I get there, and, yes, it needs a little touch-up, but it's by no stretch of the imagination "horribly out of tune."        
    There was a pamphlet published by PTG years ago, the aim of which was to get people to tune their pianos at least twice a year, if not four.  It started out with a quote something along the lines of  "There is no such thing as a piano standing in perfect tune for weeks or months on end.  In fact, within 24 hours of being tuned, some strings will have slipped a bit out of tune."  It then went on to recommend tuning more frequently than most people have it done.
    There was another pamphlet, or maybe it was the same one, with quotes and recommendations by official representatives or even presidents of many piano manufacturers.  Almost all of them, including Steinway, agreed that, in order to keep a piano in good tune most of the time, it would have to be tuned 3 or 4 times a year.  Not one manufacturer recommended less frequently than twice a year, if I remember correctly.   
    I wish this pamphlet could be issued again by the Home Office as a handout to customers.  If piano owners could see that the manufacturers don't expect a tuning to last longer than a few months, then certainly customers can't hold their tuners in a bad light if their tunings don't stay perfectly dead on for a whole year (which some customers seem to expect).  
    Of course, the owner's manuals that come with new pianos almost all recommend at least twice-yearly tuning, nobody reads them.  And tuning twice a year means spending $200 or so on your piano yearly, never mind tuning 3 or 4 times a year.  Most people just will not spend that much on their piano, even it it's a high-quality grand.  
    My gripe is that too many clients expect tunings to last a whole year.  Now, some pianos admittedly stay in pretty good tune and up to pitch for even 5 or 10 years, but those are the rare exceptions.  If piano owners expect to have their pianos tuned only once a year, then they should learn to live with a little out-of-tuneness.  I do.  My piano can get quite bad before I say, "OK, I really gotta tune this thing."  
    Sometimes they'll request a tuning at the tail end of winter, right before the spring rains come.  I try to tell them it'll need tuning again shortly because of higher humidity on the way.  Same thing at the end of August, or even into September or October.  After the heat comes on, it's gonna dry out and go flat.  Then they think you can't tune to make it last, and wonder why they should pay for another tuning.  I've explained the humidity change effect each and every year to some school music teachers and it goes in one ear and out the other.  They still want the pianos tuned at the end of August for the new school year, and expect not to have to tune them again until the Christmas program or even not until the spring high school musical production! 
    Yes, you can leave brochures, technical bulletins, etc., but they don't read them.  Or they read and forget.   It gets exasperating.
    --David Nereson, RPT 
     
         
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