Defending your tuning

[Pianoman]

When customers have their mind made up there is nothing you can do.  String 
players are the worst.  I once had a string player tell me that certain 
notes were not sharp enough.  I told him I  would change it for him.  I had 
one note so high it was above the next half step and he still said it was 
flat.  I lost him as a client so good riddance.
James
James Grebe   Piano Tuning & Repair   Member of Master Piano Technicians.
Registered Piano Technician of the Piano Technicians Guild for over 30 
years.   "Member of the Year" in 1989
Creator of Handsome Hardwood Caster Cups, Piano Benches, Music Cabinets, 
Writing Instruments,Table Timepieces
 (314) 608-4137   1526 Raspberry Lane   Arnold, MO 63010
Researcher of St. Louis Theatre History
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pianoman at accessus.net
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Geoff Sykes" <thetuner at ivories52.com>
To: "Pianotech at Ptg. Org" <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2007 12:13 AM
Subject: Defending your tuning


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