[pianotech] Tuning; was Raising rates in recession

Sat Jul 3 12:47:46 MDT 2010

Dude
  Thanks David...and
 Ok...I been following this thread ...so...I am going to time myself just to see how long it takes to get my hammer on and off each pin for the alleged mythical 5 minute 1/2 step pitch raise.  Even if you can do it the piano will NEVER be stable until the plate stops compressing and this will take about a week. AMHIK
  At Yamaha little red school house they taught to always spend and hour and a half on the piano tuning/whatever so the client is feeling like your trip thru the door was worth the fee. Don't just tune and run.
  Agree with Jer that not all tunings are concert tunings but they should all be stable and musical, and how you do that in 30 or 45 minutes  It  is'nt impossible unless the piano is already close to being in tune anyway.
  Also as far as pianos per day.  Lets see... hmm 4 tunings a day in separate locations. Driving only short distances Each one needs a pitch raise.  With and etd I can do it but I am crabby and beat at the end of the day and its no different for me now than it was 20 years ago.  Jer 11 tunings in a day...Come on. I can't even get my mutes in that many pianos a day and touch each pin with out self destructing. I know you are a talented guy but........
  I'll stop beatin that dead horse now

Dale S. Erwin
www.Erwinspiano.com
209-577-8397

-----Original Message-----
From: Al Guecia/AlliedPianoCraft <AlliedPianoCraft at hotmail.com>
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Sent: Sat, Jul 3, 2010 9:46 am
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Tuning; was Raising rates in recession

Great David! 

I was wondering when someone was going to hit that nail square on the head.

Al - 
High Point, NC

From: David Andersen 

Sent: Saturday, July 03, 2010 12:02 PM

To: pianotech at ptg.org 

Subject: [pianotech] Tuning; was Raising rates in   recession

Hey all---wonderful to see those of you I saw in my quick trip   to Vegas....lotta amazing pianos there....lotta love.   

Here's my take: I like it better to tune aurally. It makes me feel   better. I prefer it. It empowers me and makes me proud of my skills. It's a   big challenge every time, and I'm intrinsically kind of wierdly lazy and   passive, and I need the challenge. I'm always curious about how good I can   make this piano sound solving the puzzle myself...BUT THAT'S JUST ME.

Many of my most beloved and respected (by me) colleagues use ETDs because   the above is exactly true for them WHEN they use the ETD as a tool and   focusing device, as an adjunct to their skill. Beautiful. 

I don't care how you get there. I just want to hear a GREAT tuning at the   end. Very simple. Scoreboard, baby. How does it sound?

DA

On Jul 3, 2010, at 8:35 AM, Ron Nossaman wrote:

Don wrote:

Hi Ron,

Yes, it is one of the ideas that exist. However       the ETD takes time to

measure and calculate that over pull--so super       fast doesn't fall within

their province. 

Hi Don,
That     has been my observation, which is why a lot of the "pitch" for ETD use never     made much sense to me. For years, I heard techs say "I have one, but I can     out-tune it". I've seen tens of thousands of words go by on the pianotech     and caut lists about the compensations, workarounds, myriad provisional     dodges, tweaks, and general coddling necessary to get the most out of these     machines that everyone claimed to be able to out-tune, but used anyway.     Eventually, this all somehow condensed down to "less stress". Really! It's     only very recently that I've heard techs say they like their ETD because     they can do better tuning with it than they can aurally. That, at last,     makes sense to me. I still hear techs say ETD use produces faster tunings,     but I've never seen anyone using an ETD that moved along any quicker than a     decent aural tuner. Maybe that's just a "baby pigeon" sort of thing, and I     just haven't looked in the right place. Repeatability, I think, is the truly     golden part.

Accurate usually, but--not always. I just did a 9       foot that was 5 to 21

cents sharp. When I finished it was 3 cents flat,       so I had to tune it a

second time "on my dime". It had been tuned twice       in the previous two weeks

and has a damppchaser system. Do you suppose the       last tuner just didn't

bother with A440? He uses an ETD, because he must.       (translation poor aural

skills)

How does one not bother     with A440 with an ETD? I've seen pianos go out like this when the DC was     unplugged, or plugged in after they were tuned.

There were several keys where repetition was a       problem (jacks) due to some

one elses idea of regulation. All in all I was       "at" the piano for 3.5

hours--a new record of slowness for     me.

Just needs a little touch up, right? How bad can it     be, it was just tuned...

The horror, the horror.
Ron   N

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100703/e002c804/attachment-0001.htm>