Recording Studio Tuning

[Farrell]

One guy says I'm giving my services away and the other says I'm charging too much. I guess the answer to that is to never make any reference to charges for service. E-gads!

> Why was a "touch-up" pass needed after the tuning?

My normal method of tuning a piano that is within a couple cents of target is to make one tuning pass where I do the best I can without dwelling on any particular string. After finishing, I replay each note to listen to unisons and I will touch up any that might need it - or can use it. On good instruments that were real close to start with, this may only be one or two strings. On poor instruments with false beats and also had a pitch raise, it may be quite a few strings that I re-examine, or touch up. Then I'll play octaves, etc. and touch up anything else I need to - not usually much work there though.

So in this case, I did a small pitch raise pass. There was only one or two strings that I didn't adjust during this pass. It took me 30 minutes. Then I tuned it in about 55 minutes. And then I spent a few minutes doing touch-up on a couple of hopeless strings in the tenor that had bad false beats. Total 1.5 hours.

I do not claim to be an accomplished tuner. I don't know that I will ever be. I do try hard. That is part of the reason of my strong interest in shop/belly work. I struggle and do what I need to do to make a tuning sound good - and I think I usually get there - eventually. I have had many compliments of my tunings from people that should know. I know I am not even half as fast as some tuners. And it may take me two slow passes to get where a more accomplished tuner could get with one fast pass. I just do what I need to do to get where I need to get. If it is not right the first time, I do it again. I try to keep learning.

>  And what was the 
> rationale for charging 1.5 times the price of a pitch raise and tuning?  I 
> must be missing something here.

This was an "emergency" tuning. I was eating my lunch, having taken a break from drilling dowel holes through an upright pinblock in my shop - was going back out to the shop to epoxy in dowels, when a call came in at noon from the recording guy saying that a couple keys on their piano had gone "bad" and some big shots were scheduled to start recording at 2 pm. He told me right up front "name your price if you can come out here now". I said for short notice requests like this I charge 1.5 times my normal fees. He said OK. So I wolfed down my lunch, changed clothes, and tuned his piano. I was done just as the musicians were setting up.

When I first got to the piano, I checked the tuning (looking for the two keys that were off). Every octave I struck had fast irregular beats. Some unisons were out in the 5 to 10 cent off range. Clearly this piano was WAY out of tune for a recording session. The piano sounded real good when I was done. I think the guy got what he wanted, and I got what I wanted. If both parties are happy, is that not a good thing? Do you think I did something unethical or unprofessional here?

Terry Farrell

Why are you guys beating me up! I'm just trying to do good things!  ;-)
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <A440A@aol.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2002 9:03 AM
Subject: Re: Recording Studio Tuning


> Terry writes:  
> 
> > >I did a pitch raise/adjust pass (mostly in the 2 to 6 cents range), a
> 
> > tuning pass, and a touch-up pass. Charged him a bundle (1.5 times my
> 
> > regular rate, which I detailed out to him).
> 
> The original post made it appear that the piano had been tuned three times 
> for 1.5 times the regular rate, (which many of us would have thought referred 
> to the regular tuning rate).
>      Why was a "touch-up" pass needed after the tuning?  And what was the 
> rationale for charging 1.5 times the price of a pitch raise and tuning?  I 
> must be missing something here.  
> 
> Terry writes to Don, 
> >That came out to $172.50 for 1.5 hours of work. I can live with that. I
> >would hardly call that "3 tunings for the price of 1.5" on very many rate
> >sheets. 
>  >Are you suggesting that you would have charged the guy $337.50 to tune a 
> piano that was 5 cents off?
>  
>    I never saw a piano that was 5 cents off to need three tunings.  For 
> critical work, a 15 minute pass will have the piano within 1 cent of pitch, 
> and then a 1 hour tuning will be all that is needed.  
>   The true test will be if they call you back for future tunings.  If you can 
> command this rate, more power to you.  
> Regards, 
> Ed Foote RPT 
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