Too many questions ... not sure how to answer them all right now. I'll have to think about it more. But here's an off-the-cuff response. You had a post many years ago about how some pianos have a "razor's edge tolerance" (or something like that) of where you can set the string and have a beatless unison, and other's have a "range" (a very thick razor blade with a "bull nose" edge rather than the point of a 'V') within which they sound beatless, or very close to beatless. Well, the ones with only a razor's edge tolerance take longer to tune. You can't park the car "anywhere in the driveway;" it's got to be on an exact spot. Some pianos I tune every 3 months still take 1 1/2 or even 2 hours to tune sometimes. I don't know why. They're just stubborn. There are others that only get tuned every couple years, or even every five years or more, yet they stay right on A=440. Some of those take 45 minutes to tune; others 2 hours. The ones that take 2 hours are probably only 10% of the total pianos tuned. And same with the ones that only take 45 minutes (except in the schools, which don't always get a super-precise tuning). But in general, after I do a pitch raise, the final tuning goes quicker, I guess because it gets it closer to the final "target" than a tuning on a piano whose A49 is at 440, but maybe the tenor is sharp or the bass is flat or whatever. --David Nereson, RPT ----- Original Message ----- From: "Terry Farrell" <mfarrel2 at tampabay.rr.com> To: <pianotech at ptg.org> Sent: Sunday, October 31, 2010 3:14 PM Subject: Re: [pianotech] billing dilemma with pitch raises > David - I don't understand why your tuning time varies between > whether you have made a pitch adjustment to the piano, or > not. I find that a tuning typically takes me about 75 minutes > whether or not I have made a separate pitch correction prior > to tuning. > > The only reason I can think of is that a piano which you > determine does not require a pitch correction prior to tuning > is significantly further from being "in tune" than a piano > immediately after you have made a pitch correction. Is that > true? Why would that be? The only thing I can think of is > that you are doing relatively accurate pitch corrections (end > result is within a cent or two of final target), and you are > willing to tune the same piano (same circumstances) without a > pitch correction when it is significantly out of tune or off > pitch (more so than the result of your typical pitch > correction). > > If that is true, then I would suggest that you are not > recommending a pitch correction in many situations when a > pitch correction would be beneficial. Most of my pitch > corrections end up within a few cents of target, and if I > determine a piano does not need a pitch correction, that > piano is typically within a few cents of target (very similar > to the result of a pitch correction). > > How do the results of your pitch corrections compared to a > piano that you determine does not require a pitch correction > prior to tuning. Seems to me they should be about the same. > And if they are the same or similar, then why would the > tuning time vary by 50%? > > Terry Farrell > > On Oct 31, 2010, at 1:04 AM, David Nereson wrote: > >> Most tunings take me an hour and a half. And for that >> amount of time I charge $X. >> But often, after a pitch raise, which gets the piano pretty >> close to being in tune, the final fine tuning only takes an >> hour. >> Say the pitch raise took 1/2 hr, and the final tuning an >> hour. That's an hour an a half. How do I now justify >> charging extra for the pitch raise when a "plain vanilla" >> tuning also takes an hour and a half and I only charge $X >> for it? >> Or to look at it another way, if you charge $X per hour and >> base your tuning fee on that, then go do a tuning and pitch >> raise that only takes 1 1/2 hrs., but you still charge extra >> for the pitch raise, then now you're charging more than $X >> per hour. >> --David Nereson, RPT > >
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC