For every n technicians there will exist n+1 opinions about pitch raising. The more you tune, the more you will know what your tunings will do, and the more you will know what different pianos will do. And then you will still be surprised once in a while. My first rule is to leave every piano in tune, at A-440. In the Pacific NW, we can get away with that much better than in some regions. Using RCT, I can tune most pianos to pitch in one pass with less than a dozen touch-ups if the piano is less than 30 cents off. Anything more than that gets a flat fee for a pitch raise, and I expect to make two full passes. Customers have no problem paying more money for more work. I find many feel guilty about waiting so long and expect to pay extra. I do recommend tuning a pitch-raised piano sooner than normal. I have found pianos that were more than 50 cents flat close to being in tune and at pitch after two years. I might really be that good, or it might have been the phase of the moon when they cut the tree. Dave Stocker, Tumwater, WA >Perhaps an ETD will result in a better end result with a single pass, tuning unisons as you go. But even with an ETD, two passes >are better. With either method, your own experience will become your best teacher. As you observe how many different pianos >react to pitch corrections, you'll get better at predicting that reaction. And you'll know what you are capable of. It's a guessing >game, but you get better at it the more you do it. It's also kind of fun, in a sick tuner sort of way. :-) > >-- >JF On Sat, Aug 1, 2009 at 6:27 PM, Rob McCall <rob at mccallpiano.com> wrote: Greetings list, I just tuned a Samick JS-118 upright yesterday that hadn't been tuned in 7 years (It had 1 tuning right after they bought it brand new and that was it!). It was flat by about 73 cents below the break, and about 45 cents flat above the break. Pretty consistent throughout. All in all, it turned out very well after a pitch raise and then a fine tune. My question to all of you... What do you use as your criteria for charging extra for pitch raises? When is it a "pitch raise" to you? This particular piano was pretty clear cut, but do you have a point of no return? 20-25 cents? Less or more? I use a SAT IV along with some aural checks to back the machine up... I'm still earning my wings in this industry and I'm trying to get an idea of what is considered normal (if there is such a thing!). Thanks in advance. Regards, Rob McCall Murrieta, CA -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090801/f1dda3e0/attachment.htm>
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