[pianotech] repeat business

[Susan Kline]

  Hi, Matthew

I believe in realism when helping a customer decide how much tuning is 
appropriate. If, as in my example, a piano has been without tuning for 
one or more years, and is still good enough that the customer doesn't 
mind it, and it then goes way out due to a weather event, then if they 
manage to wait a few weeks and it goes back in, not every note will be 
perfectly restored --- however, since the unisons weren't perfect 
before, either, it's up to the customer to determine if they are far 
enough out to warrant a tuning. It's their money, after all. Plus, it's 
my time, and I prefer to spend it where I can make the biggest 
difference, or where a high quality instrument and/or an event like a 
concert repays the effort.

I think that when finding a note dead in tune after a year or longer, 
disturbing and resetting the pin is not a good idea. It demonstrably is 
already well set, and moving it only introduces the possibility of 
worsening the stability. Your mileage may vary. I think that tuning pins 
should be moved the minimum amount necessary to get notes in tune, 
starting with a tiny nudge to the downside, barely enough to hear a 
pitch change, to break any rust or resistance at the top bearing..

For the "self-healing tuning", a surprising number of unisons will be 
quite good. No doubt some will be worse than they started out. The 
question is whether the amount they've changed moves them out of the 
customer's "zone of tolerance" (which can be pretty wide, I've found) 
enough to justify the expense of a complete tuning.

Most of this makes better sense in a very forgiving climate, like many 
places on the West Coast enjoy. Pianos, once stable, and if in good 
health and a good location, can often coast for years and years and not 
be all that awful. Compared to places with muggy hot summers and crackly 
dry winters, both owners and tuners here are spoiled rotten.

Susan Kline

On 8/20/2010 6:02 PM, Matthew Todd wrote:
> 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 <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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