Tuning/Regulation Marketing

[Kevin E. Ramsey]

    Hi Terry, et al.

    This is something that I thought a great deal about all day today. The
"owner" of a dealership that I work for, sent a piano down to ol' Mexico to
be refinished. He didn't bother asking any of the techs (of which there are
often so many gathered at one location as to be bumping inadvertently into
each other) their opinions on the viability of the instrument. So, after one
of the R.P.T.s there condemned the piano, naturally the head salesman at
this location wanted ME to work on it. (See what being good gets you?)
    Well, I didn't condemn it, but the parts were so old as to look as if
they had been treated with linseed oil. Really dark! Naturally, some of them
crumpled as I was adjusting them. The regulation was so bad that I think
that it has never been properly regulated in it's entire life. And that got
me thinking really hard:  What kind of people worked on this piano?  Why
could they have never sold their services to the customer? Did they just
have no services to sell? I mean, the let off was 1/4" inch from the string,
and the drop was a 1/2" below that! Some of the whippens had been replaced
with the wrong parts. Parts like I've never even seen; a balancier spring
that hooks upward into a loop of cord. Man, that's a first. The jack toes
were so long, that they clicked on the regulating rail!
    I'm glad that I had the good sense to get involved with you guys right
from the start, but then, even before I thought of going into this business,
I always had Guild members tune my piano. At least I knew that much!

----- Original Message -----
From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2001 6:47 PM
Subject: Tuning/Regulation Marketing


> Allen Birchler - hey down there in New Zealand!
>
> http://www.pianoservices.co.nz/
>
> "The unethical pratice of just pulling the strings into tune has lead to
> many pianos being badly out of regulation. Your tuner should be sacked if
> they don't work on touch and tone at EACH tuning visit."
>
> Pretty strong statement. How would tuning a piano lead to it falling badly
> out of regulation, and why would that be unethical? I should think I would
> raise an eyebrow or two on the face of Mrs. Baldwinacrosonic if I tried to
> sell her a regulation and voicing job at each visit - of course, now that
I
> think of it, the visits would likely be 10 or so years apart - but what
> about the ones that actually tune at least once a year?
>
> Terry Farrell