Hearing Loss does it really happen?

[Diane Hofstetter]

Frank,

Your email  is what I have been working towards for years.  When I started 
selling the earplugs in 1999, I realized two things about hearing: 1. a lot 
of techs have hearing problems and need help, and 2. a lot of our customers 
have hearing problems and need help.

It is wonderful to tune, voice and regulate a piano so it sounds and 
performs to its highest potential, but what if our hearing starts to 
deteriorate, and what if our customers can no longer appreciate the sound of 
their beloved instrument?

I had one customer who religiously had her Steinway M tuned 
annually--although she hadn't been able to hear it satisfactorily for years. 
  It was so frustrating for me, knowing that there was no way I could help 
her hear it better. She had hearing aids already and her audiologist 
couldn't improve on them sufficiently at the time.  Sadly, her piano playing 
was no longer a part of her life.

As piano technicians, we probably know more about sound and hearing it than 
99% of the population.  What you did for your customer was to expand your 
view of piano service into genuine customer service and as a result your 
customer can hear her well tuned piano better--AND her loved ones!

Yours is the first success story I have heard. Congratulations!
Diane



Diane Hofstetter




----Original Message Follows----
From: "Frank Emerson" <pianoguru at earthlink.net>
Reply-To: pianoguru at earthlink.net, Pianotech List <pianotech at ptg.org>
To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
Subject: RE: Hearing Loss does it really happen?
Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2007 16:56:27 -0500

When I was a university staff tech, I had an assistant who had been trained 
as a tuner in the Baldwin factory, when it was still in Cincinnati.  He had 
worked for many years as a tuner in the factory.  As a university tech, he 
did excellent work for many years.  A few years before he retired I began to 
get complains about his tuning of the harpsichords.  His tunings on pianos 
and harpsichords had always be outstanding.  I followed up on one of his 
harpsichord tunings and found that everything was perfect, except the top 
two or three notes, and they weren't even close.  His piano tuning continued 
to be as fine as ever, so I took over the harpsichord tuning for that point 
on.  The high frequency hearing loose seemed to come quite suddenly, in this 
case.

Many years later, I had a customer complain that the top few notes sounded 
"dead" in her Steinway B.  It was a fine piano, and she was an outstanding 
player, in her day.  She was rather aged, and recently moved into a nursing 
home.  The management of the home allowed her to have her piano moved into a 
chapel on the premise so she could continue to play her piano.  The piano 
sounded fine, and I could find no fault with the top few notes..  I also 
tuned her daughter's piano, and was scheduled to tune the daughter's piano 
later that week.  I told her daughter about it, and suggested that it might 
be high frequency hearing loose.  The daughter told me that the mother had 
hearing aids, and she would bring it to the attention of her audiologist at 
the next check up.  The daughter called me a few weeks later to tell me that 
the audiologist tweaked her hearing aids, and it was a huge break through 
for her mom.  Not only could she hear the highest notes on her piano again, 
but she co!
  uld understand conversation better.  I had detected something that her 
audiologist had overlooked for years.  I probably would not have suspected 
the hearing loose, if it had not been for my earlier experience at the 
university.

Frank Emerson
pianoguru at earthlink.net


----- Original Message -----
From:
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Sent: 1/23/2007 2:41:49 PM
Subject: Hearing Loss does it really happen?


Greetings,

       I would like to hear from some seasoned tuners. Has anyone out there 
had any hearing loss? Should I protect my ears?   I know that I used to play 
the notes alot more loud  as a novice , than I do now days (except when I 
have to give the key a smart blow in order to set the string) That cant be 
helped (unless you want to sell the client a tuning that wont last as long)

AnY advice? COmmernts?


Thanks
JUlia Gottshall
Reading, PA