Moral Dilema ... Help!

[Alan]

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Dear LIST:
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I could really use some advice on this one! Also, any technical opinions
from not ETD users would help.
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THE PIANO: Kawai UTC-7 studio in like-new condition. This piano has a
remarkable scale design: I measured inharmonicity at C1, C2, C3, C4, C5,
and C6; used TuneLab to calculate a curve based on 6:3 bass and 4:1
treble. Came out right on, very =93flat=94 variances at the extremes, =
i.e.,
no observable deviation from the optimal curve. Switched the display to
4:2 and the bass and treble deviation curves absolutely disappeared in
the middle of the piano. And I mean exactly flat, every note on the
curve at 4:2. Wow.
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THE SITUATION: Our church piano has been tuned for many years by a tuner
who stays in a motel and tunes in this area every six months. He is not
a Guild tuner so he will not see this. I was once called to meet him at
the church and let him in. I stayed to chat while he tuned, nice guy. He
uses Braid-White, C fork, 4ths and 5ths, strictly aural. No problem. In
fact, this piano ought to be an aural tuning dream! He does no strip
muting and tunes with just one split mute, i.e., left string, center
string, then right string. So he tunes his C4 and the C4 unison, then
off he goes on his temperament, tuning the unisons as he goes. He never
visited the same string twice for any reason and did the whole piano in
about 40 minutes.=20
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The piano sounded pretty good when he left, though I didn=92t measure it
or really test it in any way. I was, at the time, the church pianist and
noticed no problems except that his tunings didn=92t seem to =93hold=94 =
very
well or very long. On the other hand, we all know what the dramatic
climate swings in churches do to pianos so I wasn=92t about to blame the
tuner.
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MY ACTIONS: Lately, it had gotten so sour that no one could stand it.
So, with permission, I tuned it as a donation of service, and happy to
do so. Friday, I used calculated overpulls to pitch-correct it because
A4 was about 6 cents flat, as was, roughly, the whole center of the
piano. The bass was flat of my calculated curve by 10-12 cents and more.
A1 was over 50 cents flat of the curve which already had an offset of
about 17 cents. The high treble tended flat and the last few notes were
very off, A7 to C8 was sharp a bunch. Saturday, I returned and
fine-tuned the piano. It is dead-on pitch and sounds great, very sweet.
(I=92m bragging on the piano, not on me.)
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YIKES: Today at church the custodian told me that she let the tuner in
on Thursday (the day before I worked on the piano) and he was here =9330
or 40 minutes banging away on the piano.=94
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MY THEORY: I think this fellow can take a nearly-in-tune piano and make
it sound =93okay=94 to most people in less than an hour. I suspect that =
he
isn=92t setting the pins terribly well, nor really settling the string,
either. And, in this case, it is clear that the piano was too far off
for a one-pass tuning in the first place. Also, I think he is sloppy in
tuning the lower bass=97the only check I saw him using was listening to
the double octave=97and I think he is just guessing at the high treble
(maybe losing some hearing?). He is so =93confident=94 in his work that =
he
really doesn=92t do checks at all: When I watched him, he finished at =
C8,
diddled out a few little tune phrases on the piano (about 20 seconds
worth), packed up, and left. No checks of 3rd-10th-17th, no running
3rds, 5ths, 10ths, or 17ths, no Maj 6th-Min 3rd, nothing. Just his 4ths
and 5ths for the temperament, then single octaves up and down with a
couple of double octaves in the bass.
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THE DILEMMA: If I knew what I know and were a plumber or an accountant,
I would sure speak up. But as a tuner, SHOULD I speak up? How on earth
can I do it without sounding like a self-serving idiot carping about a
competitor?
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Alan R. Barnard
Salem, MO
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