Duncan, At 06:35 05/10/2001 +0200, you wrote: > >Define necessary please. Some clients once a week would not be adequate.< >Good question, Don. >In order to make a living I'm tuning between 25 and 30 piano's a week. >It is necessary to tune a piano if: It is ALWAYS necessary to tune a piano! If it is not, I've got to wonder what your "day job" is. ;-} BTW, If you need to do 30 pianos a week to survive, you need to raise your rates. Changing the Guilder sign to Euro and keeping the number the same should do. (~2,2 to 1 right now, I think.) You said: >It is NOT necessary to tune a piano, if: >1. a client asks afterwards, when the tuner has finished his Job, "was it >much out of tune, can you tell me, cause i don't hear it very well" Au contraire, mon ami. You already answered why. To whit: >3. the pitch drops to a point at which there's risk of losing tone or crown; >5. the pitch is dangerously high, and there's risk of strings breaking; >2. I return in six months, and find inside the piano , ... >3. on each previous visits, there was less than 20 minutes work to be done; See 3 and 5 above, but think of those visits as preventative maintenance. Use the "extra" time to do those "extra" things. Check and tighten all the action screws - maybe even take out an upright action to tighten those pesky wippen screws. Clean the soundboard. Tighten hinge or any other case screws you can get to - great places for rattles/buzzes, etc. >4. a client doesnot hear his/her piano is out of tune. Time to do a little ear training of the client. Pick out an out-of-tune unison, and have the client listen while you tune it. If they truly cannot hear the difference, then I might concede this, a little, but re-read my previous paragraph. >What I'm saying is, is that the clients ignorance is taken to the tuner's >advantage too often. Certainly not of all those people who have their pianos tuned every decade or two whether it needs it or not... >I feel this awareness is growing among the public , and in time there >will be relatively less tuners, in area's or countries where piano's are >being tuned when it's not 'necessary'. > >I'd like to hear if anyone thinks I'm wrong on this. >Duncan I applaud your altruism, but it doesn't help the condition of your clients' pianos, or your billfold. Conrad Hoffsommer - Music Technician -mailto:hoffsoco@luther.edu Luther College, 700 College Drive, Decorah, Iowa 52101-1045 Voice-(563)-387-1204 // Fax (563)-387-1076(Dept.office) === Note new area code === effective 25 March 2001 ===
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