Pricing policies, etc.

[k.swafford@genie.com]

Paul Dempsey wrote:
>I hope that what was meant was ....I will always do the best work
>possible and charge accordingly.  Isn't the whole idea to leave each
>and every piano in the best possible condition according to your
>capabilities rather than doing one kind of work on piano A and a
>different kind of work on piano B?  Just my two cents.

     Absolutely.  I have heard many piano technicians say that they
have learned how good their work needs to be in various situations.  I
have to admit that I have never understood this at all.

     I don't think we can ever be sure who we are really tuning for
(who will hear and judge our work).

     Years ago at Christmas time I tuned a beat up old grand, one of
those pianos that had been refinished (only around the outside of the
rim, not the inside) and called "rebuilt."  As I was leaving, the lady
told me her brother was coming to visit for the holidays.  "I have to
at least get the piano _tuned_, he's a Steinway dealer."

     It got me thinking.  Our customers do not tell us the whole
story.  The whole story is none of our business.  If we decide to do
less than our best work, based on the probably incomplete information
we have about who we are tuning for, we might just be dead wrong.

     Two days ago on Saturday, I tuned an old Baldwin upright, the
kind that used to be a player piano.  The referral had come through
high class channels, which is why I had no hesitation about making the
call on an old upright.  But the piano was a mess.  I did a few
repairs and adjustments and did the best tuning I could.  When I was
through, a 10 (or so) year old kid appeared, sat down and launched
into a thoroughly wonderful performance of a lovely classical piece
(Schumann, maybe?).  I'm sure I looked real dumb standing there with
my jaw on the floor, but the truth was that between that kid's playing
and my tuning that old piano sounded pretty darn good.

     I was sure glad that I hadn't sloughed off that tuning.



                                             Kent Swafford




                         "If a thousand people say a foolish thing,
                         it is still a foolish thing."