Defending your tuning

[Thomas Cole]

Geoff,

A person's hearing can be a touchy subject and putting the problem on 
the player's perception can sound like a tuner not taking responsibility 
for his own poor workmanship. But the times I've run into this kind of 
disagreement, it has been a hearing problem or wrongly-programmed 
digital hearing aids. Recently the problem was that the wearer was 
operating the hearing aid improperly. I recommended consulting with a 
second audiologist who helped her to put things right and now I have a 
very grateful customer (with a Bosie 7'4" :-)

My approach has been to verify the tuning carefully, both digitally and 
aurally as you did and, having passed all the tests, I can then only 
certify the piano as tuned. The one time I tried to accommodate the 
player, who wanted one low bass note retuned, I could see that they 
wanted it far, far from in tune and retreated back to what I knew to be 
in tune. It's best if you quietly hold to your standards and simply 
suggest they get a second opinion.

Is there an audiologist in the house?

Tom Cole


Geoff Sykes wrote:

> Greetings all --
>  
> This afternoon I did a repair tuning on a Yamaha C3. By repair I mean 
> that the owner of the piano felt that the tuning from the previous 
> tuner, two months ago, left a lot to be desired. Once I checked it out 
> I had to agree. Anyway, I tune the piano up and make it all right 
> again and the owner sits down and plays it a bit when I'm done and 
> complains that the treble, especially the area around sixth octave, is 
> sharp. OK, I pull out my trusty Reyburn Cybertuner and double check 
> the tuning, and it's right on. Just to make sure, I put the ETD away 
> and do aural checks all the way up from about F5. Everything checks 
> out good, but the owner still insists that it's sharp. Since he's not 
> complaining about every single treble note, but just a half dozen or 
> so, I strip mute the treble and work with him on each note that he is 
> unhappy with. Doing a number of checks, including some of his, I get 
> to a point where I just can't make the note any flatter and still 
> claim the piano is in tune. I'm bringing notes down so flat that they 
> are full of fast beats and the octave is just ruined, and he's still 
> complaining that they sound flat. By this time I've disagreed with him 
> enough that he's starting to, (finally), question his own perception. 
> I suggest we leave it where it is and when I come back for the next 
> tuning I will make a point of reducing the amount of stretch in the 
> treble to as close to nothing as I can make it. He says OK.
>  
> Rather than go through this again, as well as learn from the 
> experience, I'm looking for ways to work with a customer who is 
> obviously hearing incorrectly but who I, nevertheless, want to 
> satisfy. Today's question: How do you defend a tuning that you know, 
> and can prove, is correct when the customer says it is not?
>  
> -- Geoff Sykes
> -- Los Angeles

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