This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment ----- Original Message -----=20 From: William R. Monroe=20 To: Pianotech=20 Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2002 6:26 PM Subject: Charging for Pitch Raises 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). =20 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 Yes, 4 cents flat is probably too flat to get a stable concert = tuning in one pass. Back when people referred to beats per second (at A = 49) more often than cents, someone at a seminar said that anything more = than 2 beats per second flat would require a pitch raise to be stable in = one pass. I find (in the home, not concert tunings) that that's about = right most of the time. =20 For clients, whether regular or not, I suppose you should charge = extra for any tuning that requires more passes to stabilize than one on = a piano that's already at pitch. I don't think I've ever done a = "one-pass tuning". It's always once through to do the initial tuning, = then another time through to re-tune the ones that slipped, then I take = out the ear plugs and go through again for a final touch-up. The second = two "passes" are very quick and are considered part of the tuning. =20 If I had even a nickel for every free pitch raise I've done, I = could probably buy a new couch or something. Sometimes I just don't = want to go drag the customer away from what they're doing to tell them = there's going to be an extra charge. Sometimes I charge and sometimes I = don't -- I know, that's inconsistent, but since the pitch raise takes = only 10 or 15 minutes, I usually just quickly bang it out rather than go = get them to give 'em the lecture about tension, humidity, dryness, = string stretching, tuning every 6 months, etc. Even if I do, it doesn't = do any good. They still wait 2 to10 years before they get it tuned = again, even if I leave literature about it. I've almost given up on = explaining about and charging for pitch raises. Almost all pianos I = tune need one, except those that get tuned every year (schools, piano = teachers), and even some of those need a "quickie raise or lower" in the = middle, depending what season it was when they were last tuned. =20 I dunno, for me it's easier to have the charge for a pitch raise = figured in to the "regular" base fee, and if it doesn't need a p.r., = give them a $10 or $15 discount. --David Nereson, RPT, Denver ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/11/60/b2/e7/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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