Pitch Raise & Tuning Stabality & charging

[Ken Gerler]

My two cents for what it is worth.

A couple of years ago, one of my churches was recording (in the greater St.
Louis, MO area) a Christmas tape (in July). The piano they were using was
about 15 to 20c flat.  The first day I tuned it up to pitch; the second day
it was only about 7 to 8c flat and the third day only about 2c flat, SO I
found out about stability.  I thought if I tuned it the one time, it would
be OK for the recording work.  The church brought a recording team from
Tennessee somewhere and when I got there the first day, they told me it
would take a couple of tuning to stabilize the piano. At first I didn't
believe them, but became a believer in three days.

And I charge a minimum per tuning call for an hour's worth of service and so
much an hour after that. The customer knows before I get there, if the piano
has not been serviced in a long time to expect more than an hours worth of
time to be spent on the instrument.

For the last year (I've been tuning for 30) I have been using Reyburns'
tuning program for computer.  With the pitch raise settings in the program,
in a private home, I can make the piano sound "respectable"  and at A-440 in
one pass even if it is 20 to 35c flat according to the program.  And I then
advise the customer that after two weeks time, if they want the piano to
maintain it's stability, I should tune it again AND leave it up to them if
they want to extend  the life of their instrument.

Ken Gerler