Hi Al, I'd guess I'm in the 15-20 minute category of prepping before the tuning starts if I've never tuned that piano before. I want to look it over, ask questions, maybe pull the lower panel, play a simple piano piece, chromatic scale to check each note & key's action, etc. (Most of these 1st time pianos need a pitch raise, which costs extra, anyway.) If I HAVE tuned the piano before, I'm probably more like 10 min or less, unless the client wants to talk more. Hey, it's their buck, though I generally wouldn't charge extra for that. I do have a backpack w/ my necessary "20 tunings" tools (as Randy Potter calls it). My extra tool kit (for that 21st tuning/repair) is left out in the car. That sure facilitates getting in & out of the house easily. And of course, after 40-50 tunings I have to go thru that backpack and take OUT tools that haven't been used in awhile, lightening it up. And as far as recording the temp/humdity, I just have the indicator sitting on my open backpack, and do the recording as I'm putting everything away in it's little compartment. I use the backpack that an older article referenced, and I'm very happy with it: http://www.duluthtrading.com/69094.aspx It even has a elastic pouch on the side for a small Gatoraide bottle. PS I use a Verituner PocketPC (and Spurlock holder) which easily runs on battery for at least one tuning if not two. I also do unison tuning as I go, which eliminates the time needed to strip mute the piano. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays... Bill Fritz, St Louis --------------------------------------------------------------- From: Al Guecia/AlliedPianoCraft <AlliedPianoCraft at hotmail.com> To: Pianotech List <pianotech at ptg.org> Subject: [pianotech] Pre-tuning preparation Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:28:04 -0500 I know we've talked recently about how long it take everyone to tune a piano. My problem is getting ready to tune a piano. Greeting the customer, getting all the tools I need out of my bag, taking a reading on the temp and hum, taking a reading of the piano for my ETD, writing all the info on their bill, etc, etc. It's taking me about 15 to 20 minutes. What do you all do? How much time does it take everyone to get ready to tune? Am I wasting to much time? Al -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20091210/c3b4bc8a/attachment.htm>
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