[pianotech] aural tuning, wearing nice clothes

[David Nereson]

    I use an SAT most of the time, but it's in for service this 
week, so I've been tuning aurally -- no problem, since that's 
how I tuned for 20 years before buying the ETD (ETA)  (Device or 
Aid?)

    Nice clothes -- as I posted a week ago or so, yeah, you can 
look and feel more professional, and probably feel more 
comfortable commanding a higher fee, but every time I put on 
nicer-than-usual clothes, I end up, first appointment of the 
day, having to crawl under a grand in the dog hair, dust 
bunnies, and dirty floor to work on a loose pedal lyre or 
something.  Or the dog comes up with his slobbery jowls and 
drools all over your nice slacks.
    I used to wear a tie, but I already sweat very easily with 
the slightest pressure of stress, tight scheduling, difficult 
tuning, etc., or if the temperature is over 65 F., so now with 
global warming and more casual dress standards, I just wear a 
dress shirt, no tie, and nice slacks, but not too nice.
    Seems I end up on my knees on the floor or carpet an awful 
lot since there's almost never a workbench right next to the 
piano.  You either kneel on the floor and use the piano bench to 
re-pin that jack or hammer butt, or kneel on the floor and work 
out of your kit, kneel on the floor to remove bottom panels and 
adjust pedals, to crawl under grands, OR remove the fallboard on 
each and every piano and work on top of the keys for all these 
little repairs -- re-pinning a hammer or two, re-bushing one key 
mortise, whatever.  Not sure how to avoid working on the floor 
on my knees, without carrying a fold-up table in the car. 
C'mon, you're not gonna lug that into the home just to fix one 
note!  Besides, the car's already packed to the gills.  It's 
amazing how much stuff ya gotta carry around to avoid having to 
make return trips just for one little repair.
    --David Nereson, RPT