Fork or Float

[Aaron Bousel]

An anecdote:
I have a client, a professional singer and voice teacher, who has a
Heintzman console.  Typically, the piano is about 30 cents sharp in late
August/early September, and about the same amount flat in January/February.
This is NOT when I want to see the piano, however, it is when my client
wants to see me.  The problem is, if I tune the piano in April or May, it
will sound pretty dreadful by the end of August.  Also, she is away for most
of the summer and doesn't want to get it tuned only a month before going
away.  She wants it tuned just before lessons start, hence right about now.
By January, of course, the piano is awful and I get a call.
        Since she is a singer and voice teacher, I have always just assumed
that=20
A-440 was imperative.  That is until two years ago in August when I
suggested that leaving the piano a little bit sharp (acutally 10c!)might
mitigate the extreme change in the winter. To my surprise, she had no
objection, and when I returned the following January, I found only the
center section to be very flat, saving me much work and the piano much
stress.  <BTW> She's just not interested in a Dampp-Chaser system as I can't
promise her that the piano will need fewer tunings as a result of installing
one.
        The point is, this fork or float thing does not lend itself to
absolutes.  It seems to me that there's a computation involving the needs of
the client, what works best for the piano, and what works best for the
technician--in that order. =20
        I agree with Bill that the fall and spring are the best times of the
year for the piano (less stress) and the technician (less stress) however,
does the client get the most 'milage' out of these tunings? A piano tuned at
this time of year won't begin to sound really awful (to the client) until
January.  A piano tuned a couple of months from now, at the 'ideal' time,
will also begin to sound pretty bad at around the same time.  I once had the
experience of tuning a piano in late April, only to have the client call me
back about six weeks later complaining that it didn't hold its tune very
well. Sure enough, the center was way sharp and the bass was right there at
pitch.  I'm sure that had I tuned this piano in February, it still would
have been the middle of June when the client noticed a change.
        I just finished going through about 20 pianos at the Conservatoire
here in Montr=E9al, most of which are in studios that double as teaching and
practice space.  I tuned most of them to where they seemed to want to be
(within reason).
 I've never gotten a complaint about a piano being too sharp, though if it's
flat, I hear about it.  So, I let 'em float in the warm seas of summer and
freeze 'em at A-440 in the ice of winter.  I did find that:
        1. Pianos in air conditioned rooms do a lot better than the ones in
un-air conditioned rooms.
        2.  Two Steinway 'B's in the same air conditioned room, with almost
consecutive serial numbers (one's ....57 and the other's ....59) both tuned
at the same time in the spring, varied in pitch by about 5 cents one to the
other---so go figure.=20
Aaron

Aaron Bousel =20
Ormstown, QC
Canada
abousel@rocler.qc.ca