[pianotech] billing dilemma with pitch raises

[David Nereson]

    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
>
>