Charging for Pitch Raises

[Richard Brekne]

Will, I am not sure I actually go by how many cents flat an instrument
is. Certainly if I see its like 80 cents flat I dont hesitate to call it
a pitch raise.... but my rule of thumbs for border line cases is simply
whether or not it takes me a third full pass to get it right.

I always tune in two passes with one more or less overlapping the other,
outwards from the temperament octave. If I need a third time through to
get things reasonably tuned and solid... then I charge extra.

RicB

"William R. Monroe" wrote:

> I was reading an old essay (PTJ August '90) by Rick Baldassin
> regarding Piano Tuning Stability.  Within that article, Rick writes
> about tuning for a concert and remarks that after a rehearsal, the
> treble was really out.  'Why?  The treble notes were too far out of
> tune to create a stable tuning in one pass on the tuning.'  He stated
> that when he tuned the instrument prior to the rehearsal, the 6th and
> 7th octaves were flat, 'maybe as much as four cents.' So, in a
> nutshell, if your piano is four cents flat, your tuning will not be
> stable (for a concert level tuning). My questions: 1.) Really?  Is
> four cents flat too much to get a stable concert tuning? 2.) For our
> regular clients, when do we begin charging for a pitch raise, 5 cents,
> 10 cents, 20 cents?  I realize that neither all clients, nor their
> instruments will require this level tuning, but where do we draw the
> line and say we must raise pitch to get a stable tuning? I am very
> interested to hear as many opinions on this one as possible. Thank
> you, William R. Monroe
> PTG Associate
> Salt Lake City, UT




--
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
Bergen, Norway
mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no
http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html