Charging for Pitch Raises

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

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In a message dated 4/20/02 4:03:48 PM Central Daylight Time, 
Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no (Richard Brekne) writes:


> I would love to see someone do, say, a 20 cent
> > pitch raise in under 15 minutes leaving the entire piano with no string
> > more than 3 cents off pitch. That would impress me.
> 
> I kind of have to believe there are at least a few fellows / gals out there 
> who
> can thus impress, but wonder I do, sorely if there aren't also significant
> numbers of folk out there pushing unduly the limits of what they are capable
> of, rooted in some perception of these acts of demonic speed as virtuous 
> goals
> in themselves.
> 
> I  think no one need feel that their skills are somehow found in wont for 
> lack
> of ability to raise pitch acurately in 15 minutes... or even in 30. Nor do I
> feel such derogorous self assesment need be precipatated over the time it 
> takes
> to tune a piano at all.
> 
> If one leaves the piano only after your work is accomplished 
> satisfactorilly,
> then what matter really the time it takes ??
> 
> >
> > This isn't the only thing bothering me about the discussion, but it will 
> do
> > for the moment. I'll get to the rest eventually.
> 
> .

I didn't get a chance to read all of the posts on this but I do agree with 
what has been said here.  All too often, I hear techs complain about not 
getting the desired results and the reason is that they are expecting the 
impossible.  It may make more sense in some cases to spend longer on the 
pitch raise than the fine tuning.

Doing a pitch correction tuning of a piano in under 30 minutes is no mystery 
and no great feat.  It does require good hammer technique and keeping at the 
task on hand.  Minimize the time between finishing one string and getting to 
the next by keeping your eye on where you will be next rather than where you 
are.

I use a muting strip and an SAT program to which I apply offsets for the 
pitch correction.  It simply doesn't take me more than about 15 minutes to 
move through an entire console piano needing a correction under 15 cents.  
The further off it is, the more strokes each pin must take but for a typical 
tuning around here, the pitch correction can often be accomplished with one 
or two strokes per pin.  That doesn't take more than 15 minutes to do the 
entire piano.

If I am doing a concert tuning, I'll do the same for a section of the piano 
where any of it is off by any amount at all.  I wouldn't trust a piano to 
stay in tune for a concerto unless I can pound several times on each unison 
and not have it budge even 1/10 of a cent.  That takes time to build that 
kind of stability but I'm using  essentially the same techniques as I would 
on an ordinary piano that I would finish in 45 minutes.  I just repeat the 
procedure until the very last bits of instability are weeded out.

Don't feel inferior if you are a slow tuner but do assess how you could get 
the piano into a rough tune quicker so that you really can do a fine tuning.  
Remember the late George Defebaugh's teaching, "You can tune a piano faster 
twice than you can fight with it once".  I learned that from him in 1979 and 
it could not have been a more valuable lesson.  It made all the difference in 
what I was able to do ever since.

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin
 <A HREF="http://www.billbremmer.com/">Click here: -=w w w . b i l l b r e m m e r . c o m =-</A> 

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