The best it can be

Clyde Hollinger cedel@supernet.com
Mon, 10 Sep 2001 07:25:28 -0400


---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
Friends,

All this discussion about a tuneoff has caused my mind to follow another
rabbit trail, and my question is this:

Is a piano technician ethically bound to give each and every piano the
very best tuning he can?  Here are some of my thoughts.

To a certain degree the accuracy of the tuning can be determined by the
use the piano will receive.  For example, if a fine piano is being
serviced in the morning for a concert by a concert pianist in the
evening for a paying audience, certainly the tuning should be its very
best.

But is the bar somewhat lower if a poor cheap 50-year-old spinet without
a Dampp-Chaser and gobs of false beats is being tuned for a family with
tin ears, how much does one consider economy of time, when I know that
(1) the piano will sound no better if I spend 90 minutes tuning it than
if I spend 45, (2) virtually no one will appreciate all my extra
hairpulling effort anyway, and (3) by tomorrow my carefully applied
tuning could easily be 4 cents off in the lowest non-wound strings?

I am talking simple practicality.  Every now and then I wonder if, in an
era when we can measure electronically down to hundredths of a cent, the
only people who care about such accuracy is us, because it's our game.
Straighten me out if I'm wrong; I've been wrong once or twice before
(yeah, at least that!).     ;-)

To answer my original question, I would say the accuracy of the tuning
must satisfy the client (assuming the piano itself is capable of that)
and must meet at least a minimal professional standard.

Regards,
Clyde Hollinger, RPT
Lititz, PA, USA

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/48/ae/c8/1c/attachment.htm

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--



This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC