[pianotech] repeat business

[Matthew Todd]

Hi Susan,
 
When you say that a piano that goes way out of wack after a few days, will more often go back in after a few weeks, are you saying that each unison will go back into perfect tune?  
 
Whenever I come to a piano that is almost "perfect", as in your example, instead of doing a touch-up, I do a complete tuning.  When I come to a string that is dead on pitch, I knock it out then tune it back, all the while resetting the pin.
 
You are right by saying a tuning is not bound by time, however, pianos start to go out of tune the moment we leave the home.


TODD PIANO WORKS 
Matthew Todd, Piano Technician 
(979) 248-9578
http://www.toddpianoworks.com

--- On Thu, 8/19/10, Susan Kline <skline at peak.org> wrote:


From: Susan Kline <skline at peak.org>
Subject: Re: [pianotech] repeat business
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Date: Thursday, August 19, 2010, 6:13 PM



> I've been amazed at how sour tunings can go with a seasonal change, and how they can magically heal themselves when things return to time of tuning conditions.


Hi, Ryan

Ah, yes, the self-healing tuning. That has always been a favorite idea for me.

I do warn customers that if a piano which has sat in pretty good shape for a long, long time suddenly goes way out of whack in a few days, they should grit their teeth and wait about three weeks, because often it will go right back in. On the other hand, if it goes sour all at once like that, and they tune it then, give it about three weeks and it'll probably go back out again, only in the other direction.

I try to spread the idea to customers that it's better to tune just after a major change of season, instead of just before it. Nonetheless, they are the ones who decide, and if in spite of being warned that the time is not ideal, they want a tuning in August ... they get a tuning in August. (Well, not THIS August, at least not by me, but maybe next August.)

If I come to tune a piano and it's almost perfect already, even if it has been two or three years, I give it a touch up and the customer a price break, and I suggest waiting till it bothers them to have it done again. So many people feel that "regular maintenance" should be determined not by how the piano sounds but by how much time has elapsed. I try to convince them to use their ears instead. "I feel my life is too short to spend it tuning pianos which are already in tune."

Susan Kline

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