Geoff, This piano needs a Dawson stringcover, DC Piano Life-Saver and undercover: Period. If she wants the piano to stay put that is what she needs. Pianos will go out of tune with the weather just as fast as guitars will, only guitars are much faster to tune up for obvious reasons. This is why the DC system properly enclosed is a necessity for some customers. She essentially is asking for recording studio service so charge accordingly. If this is specifically about unisons, do you check to see if the pin torque is in the middle of its range, ie a bump either way will move the pitch equally in either direction? If that is not possible on this piano are there obvious rendering issues? Have you lubed bearing points to free up rending? Does the piano need restringing with remilling of agraffes and dressing of the capo? On really stubborn pianos I engage the damper pedal and paddle (with my hands) all the keys several times and then release the pedal and check unisons. Instant feedback on pin setting which can be camouflaged by poor rendering. Alternately or serially I will rub and press on all of the strings with a rag to encourage rendering through rusty bearings. Andrew Anderson On Dec 27, 2008, at 8:48 PM, Geoff Sykes wrote: > Greetings all -- > > I have a customer with a 1982 Kawai KG-C6 grand. She's a musician. > She has ears. This piano is a nightmare to tune. Getting the strings > to render through the bearing points so that it is stable enough > that I even feel comfortable leaving requires far more pounding than > I think any piano should endure. Yet she loves the tuning's I put on > it. (-sigh-) Unfortunately, since this piano lives in her home > studio she is constantly aware of when it is even the slightest bit > out of tune. And I get called back. I guess today's question is what > qualifies as a no-charge callback? > > Now for a home piano, should a tuning I do go noticeably out within > a week or so I would happily return and put it back in without even > a thought of charging for the call. Fortunately this happens > extremely rarely. On the other hand, for studio gigs I feel totally > justified for charging either full rate or an agreed upon lower > amount for frequent routine tunings. But this situation is neither. > And she wants me to put it back in tune at no-charge, or at least a > reduced rate. > > I have suggested that due to the difficulty I have with putting this > specific piano into what I would consider a stable state that she > contact another tuner who may have more experience with Kawai's. > Unfortunately she is hesitant to do that because she loves how I > leave the piano. > > When is a piano out of tune? If I were to have to deal with > callbacks every time a customer thinks a unison has slipped a teeny > tiny amount I would be broke. As piano technicians we understand > that pianos simply start to go out of tune beginning from the moment > we pack our tools. We simply cannot be expected to be responsible > for natural and expected changes in the piano, for whatever reason, > that can slightly affect the tuning over very short periods of time. > Keeping a piano in tune at this level would be a full time job. > > I'm looking for suggestions as to how to respond to her latest > request for a tweak after only two weeks since my last visit. I've > been back there about four times in the last two months due to > similar requests. It's not like it's actually gone drastically out > of tune. If it were a home piano nobody would notice. If it were a > legit studio piano it would be being tuned every couple of days and, > again, nobody would notice. > > How do I tell her that I can't be responsible, at no charge, for the > inability of this, or any piano for that matter, to maintain a > concert level tuning over even short periods of time? And when I do > have to go back, how do I charge her without her feeling ripped off > and me going broke? She lives far enough away that even a 50% charge > would wind up being a break-even trip for me. > > One of the hardest things to master in this profession is customer > relations. Ya can't keep everyone happy, but you can at least try to > not make 'em mad. Looking forward to your comments and suggestions. > > OH, and Happy Holidays everyone! Thanks to everyone who participates > in this invaluable forum. > > -- Geoff > > • Geoff Sykes, RPT > • 626-799-7545 > • www.ivories52.com > > No virus found in this outgoing message. > Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com > Version: 8.0.200 / Virus Database: 270.10.0/1865 - Release Date: > 12/26/2008 1:01 PM > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20081227/b4ebf824/attachment.html>
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