[pianotech] rock solid for how long?

[David Ilvedson]

I always let clients know I will do my best but there are no guarantees...I explain that I can do my best work when I'm making small changes when I'm tuning the piano.   

David Ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, CA  94044

----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: "David Nereson" <da88ve at gmail.com>
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Received: 1/7/2010 11:06:31 PM
Subject: Re: [pianotech] rock solid for how long?


> > We cannot be held responsible for what happens to the piano 
>itself once we
>> leave the premises.  Many factors must be taken into account 
>> including
>> humidity flucuations.
>>
>> Jer

>    I think this gets to the root of what I was actually 
>concerned with.  I get the attitude or expectation or impression 
>from many clients than I AM responsible for that tuning holding 
>for a reasonable amount of time -- at least 4 months or so, or 
>even a year or two, in some people's minds.  I remember many 
>call-backs in the past (and occasional ones even now) where a 
>string slipped within a few days of the tuning.  The customer 
>always feels that's the tuner's fault, since they think a tuning 
>should last at least a year.  In fact, when they were growing 
>up, their mom only tuned the piano every 5 years or so, and it 
>sounded fine (they think).  So if my tuning doesn't last that 
>long, I must not be very good, or else I did something wrong, or 
>am getting old and can't hear, or was in a hurry or whatever.
>    But more to the point of rock-solidness, how do you know, 
>other than by using the forearm test or pounding the heck out of 
>each and every unison, that that tuning will stay absolutely 
>stable?  Do you go thru and tap every pin with the flat end of 
>your tuning hammer's head to see if any pins move, then go thru 
>and touch them up?  And after you do, how do you know those 
>touch-ups are stable?  You don't.  And, yes, at concerts, 
>sometimes tuners come out at intermission to touch-up a few 
>strings.  And this is understandable to the layperson because a 
>concert artist was thrashing out a heavy piano concerto.  But 
>their home piano should stay in tune for at least a year since 
>it's only used by light-handed, casual players.  (Or some 
>similar train of thought.)
>    I still experience some guilt if I charge full fare, then 
>get a call-back because a unison or a few slip(s) within the 
>next few weeks.
>    --David Nereson, RPT