Plan of attack

[Thomas Cole]

Charlie Potter wrote:

> Hi list another bother from a newbe. I would like to know if someone 
> can give me a plan of attack for tuning a piano-sort of a check list 
> or a proceedure from sitting down at the bench to closing the 
> fallboard on the way out.Thanks


If I haven't seen the piano before, sitting down at the bench is not the 
first thing I'd do. I need to determine what condition the piano is in, 
discuss with the owner what I've found needing work, how much it would 
cost to bring it up to snuff, and what they would like to have done.

Quite often they've called for a tuning and that's just what the piano 
needs. But there are a lot of newbie piano owners out there who don't 
know what is involved in a tuning and they need to be educated about the 
condition of their instrument if there are troubles lurking under the 
hood. If there are notes which are suddenly way flat in the bass, for 
example, I might discover that the pin block is delaminating and a 
tuning is, therefore, impossible. Since I tune the bass last, it would 
be important to know about this in advance. Or the action might be very 
sluggish and needs to be freed up before it can be tuned and played by 
their 6-year-old child. Sufficient time spent on diagnostics can 
occasionally head off situations where something should be done before 
the tuning, like installing a Dampp Chaser system, or moving the piano 
off of the heating duct.

So first is giving the piano a good look over before opening up my tool 
kit. I try to find out who plays, what kind of music, and how 
accomplished they are. Often just a glance at the sheet music on the 
music desk answers those questions and it helps determine what 
recommendations I might make.

Second it's important to have some kind of a verbal agreement with the 
owner before proceeding. I've had more than one experience where they 
just wanted an evaluation and why am I tuning? (lack of note taking when 
I took the appointment).

Next I tune / voice / regulate and / or repair the piano according to 
the owner's wishes. Following that might be a demonstration of what was 
done (play the piano, show new widgets installed, etc.). If the owner is 
happy, I present the bill. I don't close the fallboard, though. Somebody 
might want to enjoy the tuning after I'm gone. (or check the speed of 
the thirds :-)

Maybe someone else can outline a plan of attack for actually tuning a 
piano, but this is what occurred to me to say and I hope it is useful.

Tom Cole


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