What to Tell Owner About Her BAD Piano

[Farrell]

Hmmm. Good point. Maybe I need to give the pianists more credit. I'll sleep
better tonight now.  ;-)

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message -----
From: "David M. Porritt" <dm.porritt@verizon.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2001 11:13 AM
Subject: Re: What to Tell Owner About Her BAD Piano


> Terry:
>
> You'll not get very far with the piano owner.  Your best hope is that the
"advanced pianist" will have played Story & Irk pianos before and will have
her expectations set accordingly.
>
> dave
>
> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
>
> On 8/15/01 at 6:50 PM Farrell wrote:
>
> >I tune many older, low quality pianos that have a lot of noise, false
> >beats,
> >etc. in them. Put a good tuning on 'em and they still sound quite a bit
> >less
> >than stellar. I tuned a 1974 Sorry & Cluck console today. One of the
worst
> >I
> >have met in terms of noise (in that you cannot get a clean unison), and
> >false beats (top two octaves are trashed). It was 30 cents flat in bass
and
> >up to 100 cents flat in high-treble. Raised pitch, & tuned. Then the lady
> >tells me that in a week or so some friend of hers is coming to visit.
This
> >lady is reported to be a very advanced pianist. The guest will be playing
> >the piano - that is why the once-every-20-years tuning.
> >
> >Now surely anyone that is a good pianist will sit down to play this thing
> >for about a minute, and then say to the owner "Eleanor, I thought you
said
> >you just had this piano tuned?" Like, I'm tuning this thing and thinking
> >that this lady will call me in two weeks and want me to "tune it right
this
> >time". I know it is best to not say anything about the lousy pianos to
> >owners - and I don't. But, boy, in a case like this I really want to tell
> >her to not expect much - her piano sounds better - but it still sounds
> >like......well, you know. Any suggestions?
> >
> >IT'S NOT MY FAULT YOU HAVE A BAD PIANO, LADY!
> >
> >Terry Farrell
>
>
> _____________________________
> David M. Porritt
> dporritt@mail.smu.edu
> Meadows School of the Arts
> Southern Methodist University
> Dallas, TX 75275
> _____________________________
>
>