Piano Firing Missiles at Church Congregation

[Pianofxrguy@AOL.COM]

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In a message dated 01/29/2001 10:12:31 AM US Eastern Standard Time, 
Billbrpt@AOL.COM writes:


> She thinks I "tightened the strings too much".   
> She said she saw me working once and it looked to her that I was 
> "tightening 
> everything really hard". 
> 
> They also haven't paid the bill for the tuning that I did now 30 days ago 
> even though they had always been prompt before, sometimes even paying when 
> I 
> completed the job that day.  When I left the bill on the desk, I saw my 
> last 
> invoice sitting there marked, "Hold until next bill."  

I tuned for a church with almost precisely the same story (Kawai concert 
grand, treble strings more often than bass). I gave up explaining that there 
was no such thing as "too tight" if the piano was in tune. The "fault" will 
be yours, no matter what temperament you use, because they would otherwise 
have to admit that they a) made a poor purchase, or b) are not the skilled 
musicians they conceive themselves to be. When I tried softening the hammers 
a little, increasing the let-off a little, etc. I got the complaint that the 
pianist had to hit the keys so hard to get a good volume that her fingers 
hurt. ( I didn't soften it all that much.)
The bottom line is that there is no quick, easy solution; only expensive 
and/or complicated ones. You can try to instruct them for a little while, but 
if they don't listen after a while, you have to make it clear that they need 
to pay you for the work that you did and wish the next tuner well. Less 
heartburn in the long run.
I like the suggestion about having the pianist cover the cost of breaking 
things in the piano. I'll remember that for the next time. 
Sometime I'll tell the story of the pastor that got KO'd by a breaking bass 
string.
John Stroup

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