Concert Tuning

[Elwood Doss, Jr.]

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Jars of Clay is indeed a well-known Christian Rock Group.  Right now =
they are-and have been for a couple of years-very hot with Christian =
youth.  They are loud, I'm sure, since that's the name of the game these =
days.  I almost never attend a concert by a Christian Rock group, but I =
have attended other groups from Southern Gospel to contemporary =
Christian middle of the road groups.  All of them are loud.  I  ALWAYS =
take a set of ear plugs to protect my hearing.  I have decided that if I =
want to make lots of money in the next 20 years I need to invest in =
hearing aid companies--nearly everyone over 40 will be wearing hearing =
aids by then!

Joy!
Elwood
  ----- Original Message -----=20
  From: Farrell=20
  To: pianotech@ptg.org=20
  Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2003 3:55 PM
  Subject: Concert Tuning


  Hello Listees,

  Did one of my rather infrequent concert tunings today (dude called me =
yesterday). Anyone ever heard of a christian rock band (I assume it's =
rock-type stuff) called Jars of Clay? I had not.

  These dudes had some serious equipment on stage - place was a large =
church - but their equipment looked more appropriate for a stadium. =
Anyway, the piano. About a 1958 Sorry & Cluck console. I'll bet any one =
of the 37 guitars on stage cost many, many times what that piano might =
be worth. And the piano was Ok shape generally, but had a real bad =
killer octave and about a dozen strings that sounded like they belonged =
on some other type of instrument. Why is it these poor-performing pianos =
persist in environments where it is obvious the funds are available for =
something that plays and sounds OK?

  Piano was 5 to 20 cents sharp. I was there at 2 pm as requested with =
sound check scheduled at 3 pm. I am not a fast tuner. I turned one pin =
on each string in the tenor and treble about twice as flat as the set =
was sharp and then tuned. Finished in 55 minutes and then had about 10 =
minutes to clean up unisons. That is about as fast as I have ever tuned =
a piano where a pitch change was needed. I sounded about as good as it =
would likely get even with quite a bit more time/effort. Fortunately the =
piano player seemed to be a fairly laid-back type and made some =
statement indicating that he was cognizant of the time constraints.

  Then sound check. Geeeezzzz. I wonder how smart I am when once in a =
while I crank up my stereo in the car. People were sitting in the =
audience during sound check stuff. I had to get out of there - It was =
louder than Led Zepplin and The Who put together.

  Just felt like belly-aching a bit. Anyone ever hear of that band? I =
guess I am assuming they were christian rock?

  Oh, and BTW, just curious, anyone care to share what they might =
commonly charge for a concert tuning - on short notice - given only a =
one-hour window of time - on a Sunday afternoon? I was just going to =
charge (normal tuning fee) X 2, but I can easily imagine justifying =
additional fees for the timing of it all, etc.

  Thanks

  Terry Farrell
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