Ron, I know you aren't interested, but that would be a perfect place for ETD. Why stress your brain when you are rough tuning? At least to get it at pitch... David Ilvedson, RPT Pacifica, CA 94044 ----- Original message ---------------------------------------- From: "Ron Nossaman" <rnossaman at cox.net> To: Pianotech <Pianotech at ptg.org> Received: 2/18/2009 4:27:49 PM Subject: [pianotech] another treat >Boy did I have a great time this morning. Had three tunings >scheduled at a small "something for everyone" music studio. >The last tuner had charged him $60 each in September, and he >had fished me for a discount for the three when he made the >appointment. No dice, but he scheduled anyway. Hmmmm. >He showed me the pianos when we got there. Three moderately >old and very flat and nasty sounding spinets. These were tuned >when? Yup, it said 9/08 on the keys, and A-433 on the first >one. What? This guy tuned these pianos at a professional music >studio without bringing them up to pitch? Yes, that's exactly >what he did, and didn't mention it to the owner. The piano >tuned at 433 was a full semitone low, and another that was >marked as having been tuned at 440 was nearly a half semitone >down. RH% was in the mid 40s. The owner asked if it was >remotely possible for the pianos to drop that much. All three? >No, not remotely. So the owner is now looking at three jumbo >pitch changes in addition to the non discounted tunings. He's >less than thrilled, but says go for it. >I did the first one, and hunted down the owner to come play it >before I did any others. Told him it was to give him the >chance to run me off early before I did any more damage. He >was impressed. The other tuner didn't do that. Gee, really? He >was pleased, and said to press on. >Number two, full semitone PR&T. No appreciable drama other >than my muttering. >Number three, the tuner left a note on his card on this one. >Tuned A-440, both bridges bad. Sure enough, the bass bridge >speaking side pins were migrating in a full length crack >leaving barely noticeable side bearing on the pins. The low >tenor was pretty cracked up too. The whole piano was about a >half semitone down. And no, the cracked bridges didn't make >the whole piano drop 50 cents, it just hadn't been pulled to >anywhere near 440 when it was tuned. So here we have a tuner >that says he tuned to 440, and didn't, in a professional music >studio on a piano that shouldn't have been tuned at all with >the bridges in that condition. The owner was gone by then, as >I had been informed, so I found someone else to show the >problem to, declined to tune it, gave him a rough repair price >range, and baled out. >Discount Tuner is, meanwhile, still out there spreading - uh, >joy, wherever he slithers. >Some days, it's safer in the shop. Some days, not. This was >one of those days. >Ron N
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