was year end/now low end pianos

[Thomas Cole]

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David,

I finished off the day pitch raising & tuning a Currier spinet this 
afternoon, remembering your post about a C grade piano. I learned that 
the woman was at advanced beginner level when she quit playing her 
childhood piano 40 years ago. She acquired it a few years back from her 
mother and now was toying with the idea of starting again. As I was in 
the grips of a virus, my faculties were partly at home in bed where the 
rest of me should have been, and I was thankful that RCT could handle 
the lion's share of the grunt work. Feeling below par as I did, though, 
I had no expectations of saying, "that's the best this little guy has 
ever sounded." (Maybe next tuning).

Half way through the pitch raise, she got a call from an old friend who 
had just decided to come visiting from New York. Excitedly she tells me 
that the friend is a concert pianist and how fortuitous that she is now 
getting the piano tuned!

I'd have to say this raised the bar on the tuning a notch or two - not 
so much the tuning itself but I managed to spend additional time looking 
for slow-repeating notes in the extreme octaves, voicing problems, 
bobbling hammers, squeaking pedals, etc., defects which probably 
wouldn't bother someone at a rudimentary level of playing, but might 
make the piano unusable to an accomplished player.

I realized that normally I do try to make a so-so piano sound and play 
the best it can (being sensitive to the point of diminishing returns), 
or at least make a noticeable improvement if there are impediments (as 
in 50 - 100 cents flat in this case), but I am influenced by the 
situation to some degree. There are instances where the instruction is 
very clear, for example, to "just tune it to itself, no one here has 
perfect pitch," and then there's all the rest where it's not clear and 
you don't know who might be playing that piano. 

As to the below, a timer is no judge of a tuning.

Tom Cole

David Andersen wrote:

>     My attitude regarding the low end piano is the antithesis of a
>      comment I read here on the list a few years ago: "I put a timer
>     on the piano  and when 45 minutes passes, the piano is tuned."
>
>>Mine too.
>
>     Yes, it's harder  to tune that beast, but I think no one would
>     argue the fact that we tuners  offer service to people.  Some
>     people own Steinways.  Some people  own other pianos.
>
>
>
>>Case in point: I tune almost any piano within 15 minutes of my house 
> (any farther and it's pretty much only good grands.) Today I tuned a 
> Wurlitzer console; it was a neighbor's grandma's piano, with a card 
> from Francis Mehaffey stuck in the top (Grandma lived in Claremont, 
> CA, where Francis lived.)
>
> Anyway, I didn't "just run through it," but tuned it as I would tune a 
> good grand---slowly and carefully.
>
> When it was done, and I played it, the first thing out of my mouth was 
> "that's the best this little guy has ever sounded."
>
> A good, focused tuning can make a huge difference in a C grade piano. 
>  Really.
>
> Best to all----
>
> David Andersen 


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