working with ETD's versus..... no more really...

[David Andersen]

> 1. Dutch tuners were always forced to tune an awful lot of pianos a day
> (myself included),
> 2. always tried to make an extra buck for themselves either in the evening or
> in weekends, 
> 3. Were, and are, therefor prone to early wear and tear of their bodies,
> 4. Are for those above reasons, more than ready to make a new start with a
> nice and relaxing ETD.
> 
> I am certainly not in the lowest ranks of the tuner world here. I charge my
> customers 70 Euros which is 90 US Dollars.
> However, I am able to tune any more pianos than 2 a day otherwise my poor left
> hand will hurt more.
> So I try to earn my living mostly with technical work, like regulating and
> voicing. That is all very nice, but the level of my clientele is not of the
> same level you may have in the chintzy parts of LA. I know LA pretty well, you
> can definitely not compare it with Amsterdam, or Holland for that matter.
> There is a lot of wealth there and incredible amount of incredibly rich
> people. There is no Bel Air, Hollywood, or Beverly Hills here.
> It is so different David.
> 
> I hope that anybody, reading this, understands better my arguments why, I in
> the first place, and many others here, were more than ready for a sleek
> machine.  Too much repetitive work, too many chinese equal temperament puzzles
> every day till your 65th birthday. It is killing.
> I consider myself lucky, to be able my beautiful work, so I am not
> complaining. 
> 
> It is just that we have a completely different background.
> Sometimes it is interesting and also enlightening to better understand how
> other live, especially on this list, which counts a number of techs who are
> living in other places in the World.

I absolutely, 100% hear and understand you loud & clear. I am more than
grateful every day for where I live and how I get to practice my craft.

I honor all the men and women who, for relatively little other than love of
music and being around music, have tried to keep our incredible craft alive
through oppressive, disrespectful conditions---enabling beauty despite
adversity.

Andre', however you choose to work your magic, and however anyone with good
technical and aural skills, and who really listens, chooses to pursue
excellence, I'm all for it. Now I'm in a place where I've gotten so much
positive feedback on the Verituner from ears I trust that I can say I
welcome its use; I realize that I may be an exception or a minority in my
love of aural tuning.  That said, I agree with Andre'.  A beginning
tuner/tech would be incredibly well-served if he/she tuned many, many
hundreds or thousands of pianos by ear only, or only using ETD as checking
or monitoring device; your body MUST be able to make sense of the puzzle and
the stretch. ANYTHING we can do to refine our ears and the process of
listening in the march to the high end of our profession is crucial.

My best to all.......David A.