---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment I realize that this is a slight diversion of topic, but I wanted to share this anyway. I tend to err on the side of caution, and return to the scene of the "crime" at a time that's convenient for both myself and the customer. Most often, it's pretty soon after the original service call. I've had people say that the bass in their Acrosonic doesn't sound in tune....I usually explain that there isn't alot to be done about that one... I had two call-backs in the last week and a half. Both lived close by and I was able to drop by at the end of my day to check on the pianos. Both were complaining of funny buzzes, neither of which were there before I tuned the pianos. The first job had included a string replacement. I began to get defensive, because the piano was overly bright to begin with. Then I listened more closely to the notes that the customer was complaining about. Sure enough, heard a nasty buzz emanating from the bottom of the piano. Turns out, there was a small piece of the replaced string's coil resting hidden from view next to the pedals. The second one was a new Kawai grand that, when I got the call, I thought it was just a unison that had drifted, by the way it was described to me. But it indeed had a funny twang on B4. I isolated the strings one at a time, and found that the middle one was buzzing. I seated the strings, then pushed down on the front-side of the agraffe. Cleaning up the termination got rid of the sound. The sound was not there when I'd tuned the piano, but the weather has cooled considerably and gotten more humid in the last week. Both customers were quite happy and I'm certain they will remain customers for a long time. As long as there is a possibility of some funky noise or other problem being my fault, I will make a return trip. IF it's a matter of a tuning being "off", I usually try to go back and see if there is a problem, and explain the susceptibility of a piano to environmental change(which I had probably done to deaf ears at the original appointment). Sometimes, as Kent is saying, it's just a matter of opinion. We ARE the experts, no matter how good people might think their ears are. Give 'em a fork and a hammer and see what they can come up with! Dave Stahl . a message dated 9/10/2005 9:56:22 PM Pacific Standard Time, davidlovepianos@comcast.net writes: She likes it tuned high because she's deaf at those frequencies. You have to decide whether you will do custom tunings for people who are unable to hear. I had a customer like that. He kept calling me back telling me the treble was sharp. Finally, I said ok, I'll play an octave and start pulling the upper note and you tell me when to stop. Got to about a minor tenth before he said sounds good now, clean octave. So I did that with the rest of the notes in the last octave. Fortunately I didn't break anything. I charged him an extra $30 for the "custom tuning", asked him not to tell anyone who tuned his piano and suggested he get his hearing checked. Not surprisingly, I didn't hear from him after that. I wasn't real disappointed. I think people do have a right to what they want, historical temperaments, stretched treble or bass, whatever as long as it's within reason and achievable without pure guesswork. My only requirement is that they tell me in advance and if their specific requests take me longer, I charge them more. Also, if they sit and listen and make comments while I am tuning, I charge them double. I see no problem with what Kent wrote. David Love davidlovepianos@comcast.net -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf Of Ric Brekne Sent: Saturday, September 10, 2005 5:49 PM To: pianotech Subject: President's Message Kent Swafford writes: I won't alter a tuning to its detriment to please a customer; customers should be willing to play my tuning and give it a chance. Maybe they will like it after a full tryout. The point is if I immediately return to a piano as the result of a callback, when I get there we may still disagree about whether the tuning is good. An optimist would say I might turn the situation around by showing good faith and willingness to serve by returning. A cynic might say, the customer will end up trying somebody different anyway, so an immediate return is pointless. ------------------- I gotta admit... this snip is even more disturbing then the first post. First let me say that a customer has a perfect write to their preferences. If one is dealing with someone who has some real sense of what they want... tuning wise or soundboard wise or whatever wise... then its our job to attempt to provide that for them. If we as a tech do not wish to provide that service for any particular instance then fine... fair enough... leave it and go. An instance of this is historical temperaments... but it just a well applies to a stretch preference, or even something as specific as a single note. Our only task in such instance is to deem whether or not the customer is serious minded or not. I have an older lady that for whatever reasons likes the highest section of the treble tuned very high. Its quite strange really, starts at E7. All of a sudden her <<tuning curve>> steepens radically.. way off the chart. But thats what she likes.... thats what gives her satisfaction. (ETD's are great for finding out this kind of thing). Clear cut... <<detrimental>> (according to my tastes) or not... who the heck am I to impose upon this lady my definition of what sounds right ? no no no no no.... People have a right to like what they like, be it historical temperments, low basses, high trebles, old flatened and thined out soundboards, this make or that. We have no rights whatsoever in defining to the world about us what others should or should not appreciate. If a customer is sincere in there desires.. then we should be sincere in our willingness to help provide those. JMT RicB ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/c6/cc/af/57/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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