Piano Firing Missiles at Church Congregation

[Jon Page]

At 10:35 AM 01/30/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>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.)

Many years ago, a restaurant added a new piano player to their line-up.
This guy started breaking treble wire since he thought he needed to hit
the keys harder to get a sound, I hardened the hammers and the sound
became louder and he played softer. String breakage approached zero.

Jon Page

>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