[pianotech] Striving for the "wow" factor...

[Susan Kline]

On 5/15/2012 8:15 AM, Euphonious Thumpe wrote:
>     Almost every piano made when he lived was made with a "God is 
> watching us" type ethos of craftsmanship. ( Which we see in nearly all 
> 1880-1915 era pianos, and just about everything else made then.) 
> While I agree we should strive to do the best job possible, is it 
> really worth risking one's sanity on some truly awful specimen? (A 
> "Grand" brand spinet comes to mind, along with some of the worst 
> Kimballs.) So cheaply made that it severely twists with each pass of 
> the pins??? I'd rather save my sanity and tell the customer the piano 
> will only sound so-so, regardless of how much of my life-force 
> I expend on it, charge them accordingly, and offer to help them find 
> a better one.

I totally agree about the level of work found in pianos from this era. 
And I agree for the most part with realistic talk to the owner, and with 
the idea of helping them find a better piano. The exception, I feel, is 
for owners who can't possibly afford any better piano, and/or consider 
buying their little worn out Currier spinet to be the fulfillment of a 
life-long previously frustrated desire. There are a few people out there 
like that, who have wanted a piano since childhood, and at age 50, this 
is the one they could manage to get. They can bond deeply to whatever 
piano they acquired, and I never want to ruin their enjoyment of it by 
sneering at it. "First do no harm."

I keep seeing talk of "losing one's sanity" doing this or that. While 
it's a striking phrase, when it comes to tuning a Grand spinet (aka 
"artist console" via decal on the front, so I called it "lying bastard") 
I don't feel that tuning such a little lump of misery to the maximum 
(but nearly microscopic) level it is willing to accept in any way 
threatens anyone's mental health.

It's just a matter of fiddling with the compromises available, and 
judging which feels the least objectionable today. One knows it's going 
to end up horrible; but one also knows it will be nowhere near as 
horrible as it was when one arrived.

What is stressful about this? Stress comes from a lack of skill or from 
trying to impose impossible standards, or from being caught in between 
two people with authority who demand conflicting things. A waitress, 
trapped between a stubborn cook and a customer making unrealistic 
demands is in a stressful job. But tuning a crummy little piano? We know 
what to do with such beasties, and we just do the best we can, pouring 
in a reasonable amount of work and concern. (After all, the piano may be 
junky but the owner isn't.) What we get is what we get. We keep trying 
to tune it a little better, knowing about where the limits are, and 
knowing that we can't spend five hours on one of the things. Who me, worry?

Ted Sambell once read a little sentence, probably from Britain, where 
someone talked about excellent piano tuning requiring a nervous 
sensitivity bordering on neurasthenia. He and the class had a good 
guffaw about that idea. But here it comes around showing its ridiculous 
head again, asking to be taken seriously.

To grotesquely paraphrase Shakespeare, people have ended up in padded 
rooms wearing straitjackets -- but not from tuning pianos.

sssssssssssssssssssnnnn




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