stability of pitch raises

[Kevin E. Ramsey]

    Ron, there are those times when you have the piano "trained" after being
repeatedly tuned to a set standard, where you do only need to do one pass.
Often I will not charge extra for two passes if I think that the owner has
really been trying to do the right thing by regularly tuning their piano. If
a piano is within say ten cents or so, evenly, not thirty cents low in the
top end, then I won't charge for a pitch raise. But, if I get the impression
on the first tuning that it hasn't been tuned in two or three years, then
hey, I charge more for that kind of situation. And that means that I haven't
seen that particular piano before. In fact, on all new calls, I usually
quote for my regular tuning fee, but tell them about my fee for a pitch
raise, if one should be necessary. Then, after I've stripped off the piano
and listened to it, I give them the news and let them decide what it is that
they want me to do. Often, I do this first, without even stripping off the
piano if I can hear beats in the unisons.
    You might think that this is punishing the customer for not taking care
of their piano, and in a way it is, but before I became a technician, I
thought that if I let it go for a couple of years, then hey, I'll pay extra
next time; no problem. I didn't expect to get something for nothing. Even
though I lived in California. Maybe that's one of the reasons I had to get
out; I had nothing in common with those people.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Nossaman" <RNossaman@KSCABLE.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, August 31, 2001 5:48 AM
Subject: Re: stability of pitch raises


> >Ron,
> >    If a piano has been neglected long enough to warrent a pitch
correction,
> >these is no doubt that other items necessary for a healthy piano have
been
> >piling up also. There is always plenty to do outside of tuning, yes?
>
>
> Of course Dan, but that wasn't the question.
>
> The question was:
>
> >> If folks are habitually doing two pass tunings anyway, and since
they're
> >> probably using an ETD that does pitch raises within a couple of cents
of
> >> dead on in one pass (as we read repeatedly), why would they find it
> >> necessary to charge anything above the cost of a tuning for a pitch
> >> adjustment?
>
> Ron N