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Terry,
This is a toughie. She doesn't want to hear about mahogany soundboards,
spinet scaling, or any aspect of physics or acoustics. She just wants her
piano to sound like it used to. I "tuned" one of these at a nursery school
not long ago and had to explain to the lady who ran the place that it wasn't
a very good piano.
To revert to a recent thread, Whitneys ARE untunable. Bottom of the heap.
Of course, you can't say that to an 80 year old lady who has for years
believed that it is the greatest instrument ever built.
You might try taking the Verituner along, show her the display and explain
that the machine doesn't lie. If you take your wife along to play it, your
wife will probably say "this sounds horrible." And it won't be your fault,
either. It won't be flat, it will just sound like breaking glass. You've
done all you could do.
Dave Stahl
In a message dated 6/6/02 5:49:59 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com writes:
> I am looking for recommendations on how to handle this one. The elderly
> (mid-eighties) woman call me and tells me that some other tuner tuned her
> piano a couple weeks ago, but it still sounds flat - will I tune it for
> her? Sucker me says yes. I go there three days ago. Kimball/Whitney 36"
> spinet, 1960s. A real gem. Piano is pretty much in one piece, but typical
> for the breed. The piano was indeed 40 cents flat. I thought - "hey, this
> lady's got pretty good ears."
>
> So I raise the pitch to A441 and use the Thomas Moore temperament. I give
> it a second fine tuning pass. Piano ended up sounding, er, a, well, like a
> tuned 1960s Kimball/Whitney 36" spinet. I play some scales and cords. She
> says it sounds good. Great. Collect fee, chit-chat about cute dog. Say good
> bye.
>
> She just called this morning and says her piano sounds flat. It is just
> like before I got there. I ask her to play middle C. It sounds the same as
> my Boston grand at home (pitch-wise at least). It is not 40 cents flat.
>
> She asks me to listen to her play Amazing Grace. This is not one of my top
> tunes, but I do know how the melody goes. I have no idea what she played.
> It was just a bunch of notes mashed together. I think perhaps she doesn't
> know her notes very well and thinks that the bad sounds are the tuning,
> rather than the playing.
>
> This woman is very sweet, and did not call with an aggressive tone at all -
> she is not trying to be antagonistic - she honestly thinks her piano is
> flat ('course, maybe she is just hearing "bad" piano). I want to make her
> comfortable with the situation, but I know that I can't significantly
> improve the tuning on this nasty little piano - it is indeed pretty much
> where it needs to be (although one could make an argument for the dump).
>
> Any suggestions on how I can show her that the piano is as good as it is
> reasonably going to get? I don't play. I could possibly drag my wife over
> there and get her to play Amazing Grace.
>
> Thanks for any suggestions.
>
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