unison

[JIMRPT@aol.com]

James;
In a message dated 5/18/97 8:52:10 AM, you wrote:
<<Electronics can achieve perfection in a unison and purposely miss the mark
and we strive for perfection, always slightly missing the mark and yet our
work or sound is preferred.
James Grebe from St. Louis>>
  This is an interesting paradox, is it not ?

  I was first made aware of this phenomenom in the early stages of my tuning
battles.  Working for the local Steinway dealer and doing outside tunings as
well.
  We received a call for tuning from an older lady and I was sent on the
call.  I found an old upright that had not been tuned in years and had some
of the wildest sounding unisons I had heard up until then.  The lady was
very, very nice and wanting to do a good job for her I pulled it to pitch,
then tuned it 3 times to get it to settle down. (tunings were $7.50 then)
  After a long conversation with the lady I went back to the store, about
half a mile away.   When I walked in the back door the Secretary called out
to me and said that Mrs. ................... had called and was crying,
saying that I "had ruined her piano" !!!!!  I jumped back in the car and went
back to the house.  I was apologetic when she opened the door and assured her
that we could rectify any mistake I had made !  After taking my recent
"victim" down to tuning form, I found only one or two unisons that had
drifted (surely this is not she is complaining about said I to myself) I
solidified those few unisions and asked her to try the piano again.  She sat
down and played, while sniffling, turned to me and said "you have done killed
the soul of my piano".
  Well I was perplexed and anxious, as any realtively new tech would be in
this situation.  Then I remebered my Uncle Smitty telling me that "some
people want their piano tuned but that they also want it to sound the same as
it did before you tuned it."  So.... I went back and detuned 1 string of each
three string unision aprox 1-1.5 bps and 1 string of each two string unision
the same.  Mrs.  ...............was thrilled saying "yes that is my piano and
it sounds so fine, Thank You !!!"
  To shorten the story,  I tuned for this lady for many years until her death
and recv'd more referrals from her than any other customer I ever had.  No, I
never have tuned for anyone else in the same manner, but I did learn a very
valuable lesson, i.e.  'Listen' to the customer, private or institutional,
tell you what 'they' want, 'tell' them what they need, and then do what
'they' want.
Jim Bryant (FL)