[pianotech] another treat

[David Ilvedson]

Ron,

I know you aren't interested, but that would be a perfect place for ETD.   Why stress your brain when you are rough tuning?   At least to get it at pitch...

David Ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, CA  94044

----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: "Ron Nossaman" <rnossaman at cox.net>
To: Pianotech <Pianotech at ptg.org>
Received: 2/18/2009 4:27:49 PM
Subject: [pianotech] another treat




>Boy did I have a great time this morning. Had three tunings 
>scheduled at a small "something for everyone" music studio. 
>The last tuner had charged him $60 each in September, and he 
>had fished me for a discount for the three when he made the 
>appointment. No dice, but he scheduled anyway. Hmmmm.

>He showed me the pianos when we got there. Three moderately 
>old and very flat and nasty sounding spinets. These were tuned 
>when? Yup, it said 9/08 on the keys, and A-433 on the first 
>one. What? This guy tuned these pianos at a professional music 
>studio without bringing them up to pitch? Yes, that's exactly 
>what he did, and didn't mention it to the owner. The piano 
>tuned at 433 was a full semitone low, and another that was 
>marked as having been tuned at 440 was nearly a half semitone 
>down. RH% was in the mid 40s. The owner asked if it was 
>remotely possible for the pianos to drop that much. All three? 
>No, not remotely. So the owner is now looking at three jumbo 
>pitch changes in addition to the non discounted tunings. He's 
>less than thrilled, but says go for it.

>I did the first one, and hunted down the owner to come play it 
>before I did any others. Told him it was to give him the 
>chance to run me off early before I did any more damage. He 
>was impressed. The other tuner didn't do that. Gee, really? He 
>was pleased, and said to press on.

>Number two, full semitone PR&T. No appreciable drama other 
>than my muttering.

>Number three, the tuner left a note on his card on this one. 
>Tuned A-440, both bridges bad. Sure enough, the bass bridge 
>speaking side pins were migrating in a full length crack 
>leaving barely noticeable side bearing on the pins. The low 
>tenor was pretty cracked up too. The whole piano was about a 
>half semitone down. And no, the cracked bridges didn't make 
>the whole piano drop 50 cents, it just hadn't been pulled to 
>anywhere near 440 when it was tuned. So here we have a tuner 
>that says he tuned to 440, and didn't, in a professional music 
>studio on a piano that shouldn't have been tuned at all with 
>the bridges in that condition. The owner was gone by then, as 
>I had been informed, so I found someone else to show the 
>problem to, declined to tune it, gave him a rough repair price 
>range, and baled out.

>Discount Tuner is, meanwhile, still out there spreading - uh, 
>joy, wherever he slithers.

>Some days, it's safer in the shop. Some days, not. This was 
>one of those days.
>Ron N