At the weekend I tuned a stright-strung upright for a local youth theatre group who rehearse in a church hall. It was 180 cents flat, and came up to A440 quite well in two passes in under two hours and ended up sounding respectable (for a piano of its age and type). Yesterday I went back after well over a year to tune the 7 foot Bechstein grand of a retired Schools and Colleges music inspector. He commented on how well it had stood up since last time (my first time with that piano), saying "It's held up magnificently. Best tuning it's ever had!" So, naturally I was pleased to hear that. It was 20 cents low and on the previous occasion the time window for the customer had been limited and he took the decision just to keep it at that pitch. This time, feeling empowered by the easy pitch raise at the weekend, and by his praise, I decided to have the Bechstein at A440, as he told me his daughter had been coming over to play Cello to his acccompaniment, and complained. Dagnabbit that Bechstein fought me all the way! Two and a half hours to do a respectable tuning, raising 20 cents, as opposed to under two hours for 180 cents in the old upright! I guess one shouldn't anthropomorphise pianos, but its as if the upright was saying "Hey this feels good, I like it up here" while the Bechtein grand said "Leave me alone, don't push me, I don't want to move!". That'll larn me not to get too confident..... I did win in the end mind you. David Boyce
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