Lousy work, lousy results

[Les Smith]

On Sun, 5 Oct 1997, Larry Fisher wrote:

> That first tuning you ever did sounded like hell (admit it, damn it).  500
> tunings down the road and your tunings still sounded like hell, it's just
> that not as many people noticed.  

Speak for yourself, Lar. Maybe YOUR first tuning sounded like Hell, mine
didn't. The only problem was that it took me about a month to do it and
then, when I was finally finished, it only lasted about fifteen minutes.
But for one, brief moment in time I had that sucker sounding GREAT! I know
this because that's what my mom told me when I had finished. So there!

By my 500th tuning I had been able to refine my tuning technique down
to the point where I was able to do a pretty decent tuning in about a 
week, sometimes less, if the guy who had gone before me had been REALLY
good. Also by this time I had mastered the experienced pro's secret of
being able to set both the pin and the string well enough so that the
tuning lasted AT LEAST until the check cleared. VERY IMPORTANT, that!

AFTER about my 1000th tuning, I stopped tuning JUST my mom's piano and
started to tune for others. I rapidly learned that their ability to de-
tect a REALLY GREAT tuning was not nearly as keen as my mom's, also they
didn't seem nearly as willing she did to pay me for tuning their piano
every week. Sometimes it seemed that they expected a tuning to last FOR
EVER! Hey, when you customer base only consists of six people, a tuner
would starve to death if he did such a good job that the piano had to be
tuned  only once or twice a year! For the good of the instrument, I
routinely recommended tuning at least every other week. If the customer
would question this and ask if such frequent tuning was really necessary,
I would think of all the bills I had to pay, the balance in my checking
account, and then answer honestly, YES!

Sadly, forty years and a zillion tunings later I still run into ingrates
who don't fully appreciate my efforts on their behalf. I don't let it
bother me though. When that happens, I just go over to my mom's and tune
her piano for her. She's older now and her hearing isn't what it used to
be, but when I'm finished, she still tells me that it sounds GREAT! Not
only does she pay me my regular tuning fee without quibbling, but she
always gives me a CASH TIP, too. Best of all, when she asks me when it
should be tuned again and I tell her in all honesty "next week", she
never questions my recommendation, she merely says "plan on staying for
dinner, afterwards." I wish I had a million customers like my mom! :)

Les Smith
lessmith@buffnet.net