Israel, First year tuning I was sent out to tune a Sohmer console. BADLY out of tune with the usual 1/2 step flat. Well, this was too much of a challenge to pass up. I raised the pitch and achieved a solid tuning. Busting my buttons with pride. A week later my boss asked me to recheck the piano as the customer had called, and did not like the tuning. Puzzled I checked the piano to find that it was very much as I had left it. Busting more buttons. I started checking how my pins were set and raised the pitch to see how stable the unisons had remained. Suddenly the customer screamed "That's it ! That's my piano ! " So, I continued to raise one string from the unison two beats or so, much to her delight. I rationalize that she had become so accustomed to her piano being out of tune, that when I 'tuned' it the sound she anticipated was gone. Fortunately this scenario only happened once - so far. Tuning the customer . Smiles all around ! Joel On Aug 17, 2008, at 12:40 AM, Israel Stein wrote: > Many years ago in Boston I was that "other qualified technician" that > a lady with an old beater called. She was not happy with how the work > of the previous tuner sounded - a fellow whom I knew to be a perfectly > competent practitioner. I discussed the problem with her and from what > she was telling me I got a hunch. So I slightly fuzzed up the unisons > on a couple octaves and asked her if that was better. She was ecstatic > - yes, yes!. So I did that to the rest of the piano, collected my fee > and left a happy client behind. Never heard from her again, thank G-d. > > Maybe good clean unisons on a crummy piano bring all those acoustical > anomalies into sharp focus. Fuzzing the unisons may mask them. Or > maybe I am just making excuses. Who knows. But it worked once and I > never lost any sleep over it... > > Israel Stein > > > > >> Wow. This is a first for me. This lady is nuts. I checked the piano >> out this past Sunday. It had a few unisons singing a bit (IMHO, not >> uncommon a week after doing a 25-cent pitch raise), but otherwise >> sounded fine (well, as "fine" as most any 1970 Baldwin console >> sounds). And I told her so. I checked octaves, thirds, fourths, etc., >> etc. and it's all in the ballpark. >> >> She plays a tune and stops and says "hear that? it's wrong"! Well, >> sure, anytime you play an E and an F# together it sounds pretty bad! >> But she'd play other things and stop and say "that's wrong". Sounded >> fine to me. I didn't know what to say really. We did talk about the >> possibility that she had just gotten used to how it sounded when it >> was way out of tune. She agreed to play it a bit more and see. >> >> So she calls me just now ranting and raving "it's all wrong, it's all >> wrong". She says even her students are complaining. What the >> ........ >> >> She tells me that some times one song will sound fine, and then the >> next one sounds wrong. >> >> Does the piano good. Of course not. It sounds like a crappy little >> Baldwin console that has sat too many years on the back porch >> (enclosed) of a home in Florida. But it sounds to be in as good a >> tune as any little piano like it. >> >> So I guess the next step is to simply tell her that I don't seem to >> be able to satisfy her piano service needs and that she might be more >> satisfied with someone else's services. But that leaves one question >> remaining - in her view I have not tuned her piano - in my view I >> have. I don't think I should be returning her $95 (yeah, yeah, I >> didn't charge her for the pitch raise....). But then again, I'm sure >> she's on some sort of fixed income, and I've really never had an >> unhappy customer before...... >> >> I don't think there is any real good resolution to this situation. >> Any great ideas? Just tell her to find someone else and leave it at >> that? Seems like the only thing that makes any sense to me - but I >> kinda hate taking her money also..... >> >> Terry Farrell > -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 3936 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20080817/b8968ff0/attachment.bin
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