Help with "bad" tuning...need help

[Richard Brekne]

You tell your customer that the piano is behaving exactly like you said 
it would, exactly how it should be expected to behave when it has been 
left untuned for so many years. You dont worry about the other tech or 
whatever he has to say, and you use the experience to try and improve 
your skills, both piano proffesional and buisness as best you can, and 
make sure you keep getting up each morning and greet each new day with 
the same basic attitude.

Dont worry, be happy, but always strive to get better.

Cheers
RicB

Doug Renz Piano Tuning wrote:

> As a new piano tuner, I am learning a lot as I go and tune different
>
> piano’s and typically I am tuning the older piano’s and some new/better
>
> ones. This past Sat. I tuned a piano for a home that had a console
>
> that had never been tuned ‘in a long time’. I warned them that I might
>
> break strings and that it will go out of tune quickly because of the 
> condition
>
> of the strings and the piano itself. Well I was called back by
>
> the customer saying ‘the piano is still out of tune and you must not
>
> have checked it before you left’. Before I left I told him, ‘your piano
>
> is most likely going to go flat somewhat because it has not been tuned
>
> at all in such a long time (20+ yrs) and that it should tuned every 6 
> months. The
>
> piano was old and recently had some action work, but the strings looked
>
> old and dirty. I was careful not to break any strings and when I left 
> it sounded
>
> good and the funny thing was the customer said it sounded good after I 
> finished.
>
> It was not that out of tune, A440 sounded like it was between g-sharp 
> and a, but
>
> not an entire half/step off.
>
> So, what do I do now? Has anyone been in my shoes before? Go back and
>
> do a ‘free’ fix it up tuning, or tell him, he has to pay for a 2^nd 
> tuning. Is this
>
> going to risk my reputation? He had the action done by another local 
> PTG member
>
> and I am afraid that if I don’t go back and ‘fix’ this, I am going to 
> get that
>
> reputation and the other PTG member might tell others about the ‘part 
> time’ tooner,
>
> which I do not want to be and this is why I joined the PTG, to get 
> better. Any
>
> thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.
>
> I thought the tuning was good, inspite of the condition of the piano 
> and the strings.
>
> It sounded alot better, but I knew it was going to need another tuning 
> soon.
>
> Any advice, thoughts?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Doug Renz
>
> Associate PTG member, Rochester, NY
>