tuning time

pianolover 88 pianolover88@hotmail.com
Sat, 13 Jan 2001 09:52:12 -0800


I overheard a customer talking on the phone recently, saying "i didn't 
realize that tuning takes so long." I had been working on her piano, at that 
point, for less than 25 minutes!! In fact, the whole job took about 65 
minutes, from "drive up" to Drive away...and I should mention that I also 
did a quick Pitch raise!
So i thought it would be a great time, before I left, to educate my customer 
just a tad. While i was packing things up, I took the opportunity to say the 
following: "your piano has roughly 240 pins (Not quite that many, but for 
easy math...as in 240 minutes= 4 hours) and because i had to tune your piano 
TWICE, we double that to 480. Each one of These 240 tuning pins hold string 
tension up to 170 lbs, and require the utmost in small, precision movements 
to get the piano in tune..and STAY there. If a tuner were to spend just 1 
minute on each pin, (tuning twice) it would take about EIGHT HOURS to finish 
the job! So, in order for me to have finished TWO tunings in just over an 
hour, that means I spent only about 1/8th that amount of time, or about 7.5 
seconds PER PIN! That includes setting the temperament AND perfecting 
unisons. She was duly impressed, and thanked me for taking time to explain 
the process.

Terry Peterson
Associate Member PTG
Los Angeles, CA

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