stability of pitch raises (Ron's question)

[David Love]

I use an ETD and do not do 2 pass tunings.  If you are not confident in
stability and accuracy the first time through it seems a waste of time. That
being said, however, in a concert/recording or other critical situation, I
will, invariably, go through a second time more carefully and check my work,
progressions and intervals, even though I always go through and check
unisons after I am done. (By the way, for concerts and recording sessions I
do charge slightly more because I pay attention to more details:  voicing,
regulation etc..)  This is not nearly so time consuming as doing a rough
pass for a pitch raise followed by a second fine tuning and so for that I
charge more (about half a tuning).  I would guess that those who do two pass
tunings are not having to move and set every note again--what would be the
point of the first tuning if it was so sloppy that you had to do it over
again completely.  Therefore, their second pass is appreciably less work
than a full pitch raise and fine tuning.  Thus, a charge for the pitch raise
would be in order.

David Love


----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Nossaman" <RNossaman@KSCABLE.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: September 02, 2001 11:33 AM
Subject: Re: stability of pitch raises (Ron's question)


> OK folks,
> I got a couple of good responses to the actual question early on, but this
> has once again wandered off into a series of answers not relating to the
> question asked. The question was, and still is:
>
> ************************************************************************
> 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?
> ***********************************************************************
>
> I do, believe me, understand that it takes longer and is more work to do a
> two pass pitch raise and tuning than a one pass tuning. I also understand,
> believe me, that you can't do a substantial (no numbers, just somewhere
off
> pitch) pitch correction as accurately in one pass as in two. That's why I
> didn't ask that particular question - nor am I likely to. I am, in
> practice, an active tuner/technician, and live this stuff on a daily basis
> so I'm quite familiar with the reactions of pianos to pitch adjustments. I
> don't need the sales pitch, I'm merely asking for an explanation answering
> my question. If anyone is interesting in clearing this up for me, please
> read the question again and, if what you habitually do corresponds to the
> question in that you (1) habitually do two pass tunings, (2) tune with an
> ETD, and (3) charge extra for pitch adjustments, I'd like to hear your
> reasoning justifying the extra charge.
>
> I also asked another related question regarding how those who charge for
> pitch adjustments based on how far off pitch the piano is, determine how
> far off pitch the piano is. I still haven't gotten an answer on this one,
> which baffles me. This has gotten so much traffic through the years that I
> was sure I'd get a veritable avalanche of cogent and clever methods from
> those who habitually quote cents deviation in their posts about pitch
> adjustments. How can one compute charges on something they can't define?
>
> Maybe it's just me, but I find honest answers to these sort of simple
> fundamental questions to be far more valuable, as well as far more
> difficult to get, than information on how to get tape residue off of
keytops.
>
> Ron N