Under an hour tuning

[antares]

After having read the posts about tuning "Under an hour" I would like to
mention the following :

As stated before in my posts to this list I too have tuned 'some' pianos.
When I started as a 'professional' tuner it took me about 1,5 hour to tune a
piano.
On my very first real tuning day I tuned 5 pianos and was very tired
afterwards.
However, within a few years I tuned the required quotum of 7 pianos a day
(for the boss) plus the extra 1 or 2 for myself. Average time per piano ?
probably between 40-50 minutes excluding travel time and coffee.
Then, after a long long time (about 13 years later), I received many new
lessons on tuning more precisely and my tuning time again changed to about
one hour.

I now (after ± 30 years) tune for the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and everybody
understands that a tuning there must be of the highest quality and! ROCK
STEADY as there are those pianists who, after having performed what they
have to perform, leave the piano behind in a W shape (if you know what I
mean(?).

It never takes more than 1 hour and I have never received one complaint
about either an ugly tuning or strings going 'out' after serious 'banging'.

I thought that was/is quite normal for a pro, so what to think about
spending hours and hours on just one tuning when my own tuning stays in very
good shape during a 'dinosaur treatment'?

friendly greetings
from

Antares,

Amsterdam, Holland

"where music is, no harm can be"

> From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
> Reply-To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Date: Sat, 4 Aug 2001 19:39:06 -0400
> To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Subject: Re: Under an hour tuning (was labor rates)
> 
> "Concert pianos on stages and console pianos in living rooms are not the same
> kinds of instruments.  I know, for example that when I am going to tune a
> Steinway grand in someone's home, the time I spend will be much more, maybe
> even double."
> 
> Is that because a Steinway grand is harder to tune? Do you charge 50% for the
> console? I don't understand your policy here. Please clarify. If my auto
> mechanic did a significantly better tune-up on my neighbor's new Lexus than on
> my 18-year-old car, I would not be happy with him/her at all. Is this what is
> going on here?
> 
> Terry Farrell  
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Billbrpt@AOL.COM
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Sent: Saturday, August 04, 2001 1:58 PM
> Subject: Re: Under an hour tuning (was labor rates)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A tuner who does a cheap job in an hour or so, may well leave the piano
> sounding quite good, but in all probability it will deteriorate within a
> few hours, days or weeks.
> 
> 
> I copied this phrase from the website it was suggested to visit.  That is
> precisely my point about presenting the EBVT or any other tuning at the
> Convention.  45 minutes is just enough time to set oneself up to ridicule.
> Any of the tunings I did for the Baldwin recitals took 6-8 hours.  I lost
> track of the many hours I put in on the Walter piano on which the EBVT was
> presented at the Convention in Providence.
> 
> Even in the response article I wrote about this event, I conceded that
> perhaps I was the "winner" of the event more because I had the best sounding
> piano and had spent many, many hours tuning it before I had it locked in to
> the program I had designed for it, each of the 88 notes accurate to within
> 1/1000 of a semitone.  And certainly, there were those who were disturbed by
> and questioned my hours of relentless pounding.
> 
> Yet, it's true that the ordinary, every day tunings I do usually take less
> than an hour.  Many of my customers are repeat customers for whom I have
> tuned for many years.  It simply doesn't take any longer than that and their
> pianos also meet a very high degree of perfection in tuning, well beyond the
> standards of the PTG Tuning Exam.
> 
> Concert pianos on stages and console pianos in living rooms are not the same
> kinds of instruments.  I know, for example that when I am going to tune a
> Steinway grand in someone's home, the time I spend will be much more, maybe
> even double. Time spent on any particular tuning is all relative to the
> circumstances. 
> 
> Tomorrow, I will go to the Frank Lloyd Wright estate to tune for the concert
> series going on there now.  It will take me about 30 minutes to tune the 9
> foot Bechstein grand.  I know that because that's all the time it has taken
> me for several years now but each note will be solidly locked on the program
> I designed for that piano some 10 years ago.  Then I have to tune the
> harpsichord, (and that will probably take twice the time) then make the 35
> mile trip to meet my call as a principal singer and actor in the Bernstein
> show, On The Town.  Making the costume change from the first scene to the
> next one I'm in takes about the same amount of time that it takes to tune the
> Bechstein. 
> 
> As it turns out, the concert tuning I will do on the 9 foot Bechstein will
> take the very least amount of time of all the activities I will do that day,
> including showering and shaving.
> 
> Bill Bremmer RPT 
> Madison, Wisconsin
>