[pianotech] How long do unisons hold?

[Dean May]

Early in my career I tuned for a restaurant that featured a locally well
known pianist. The guy was pretty good, but he could hammer the piano. It
was a really small Kawai grand, don't remember the model. There was usually
one or two broken strings when I came out and evidence of a couple dozen
others that had been replaced by the previous tech. I had lots of complaints
from him of unisons not holding. Trouble was I was new to the business and
little uncertain of myself. For a given unison that was out it was
impossible to distinguish if the problem was me, a previously broken string,
the physics of this particular model piano (which I've since learned is
problematic), his hard playing, or his attempt to touch up the unison with
his own hammer that he kept under the music desk. It was a harmonic
convergence of unison instability conspiracy on steroids. 

I was smart enough to realize all these factors were in play. Couple it to
the fact the guy was something of an ass and the restaurant owner just
wanted the complaints to go away. Plus I was hungry for business and did not
want to lose this account. So I took it as a personal challenge to get the
darn unisons as stable as I could. I also made a habit of doing a follow up
2 or 3 times between tunings to touch up unisons which the owner really
appreciated. Sure I lost money, but my unison tuning did get better. And
I've made thousands of dollars from this account over the years with regular
tuning appointments- probably around 50 tunings total. 

The pianist eventually moved to Florida and the restaurant got a different
piano. No more unison problems. 

Dean

Dean W May                (812) 235-5272

PianoRebuilders.com    (888) DEAN-MAY

Terre Haute IN 47802

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of David Nereson
Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2010 1:33 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] How long do unisons hold?

    No tuning is rock-solid, as much as the most confident of us 
would like to think they are.  Many recording studios tune once 
a month.  At many concerts, a tuner comes out during 
intermission to touch-up unisons.  I just now did a freebie 
touch-up for a client whose piano I tuned a month ago.  If she 
just played Debussy all the time, it probably wouldn't have 
needed it, but she plays rock, gospel, and jazz, and quite 
forcefully, on a piano that has very hard hammers.  But she 
still wonders what's wrong with the piano when a few unisons 
have drifted after a month.
    I get the impression that the general piano-owning public 
thinks a tuning should stay perfectly locked-in for about a 
year.  But they just don't.  Yes, there are those old pianos 
that stay almost rock-solid for 5 or 10 years, but they're 
one-in-a-hundred.  As previous PTG brochures on tuning have 
pointed out, we're lucky pianos stay in tune as long as they do, 
with their essentially 18th century technology, and their 12 to 
20 tons of tension on the plate and each string under 75 - 150 
lbs. of tension.  Other (non-fixed pitch) instruments are tuned 
about every time they're played.
    I've often tuned pianos where, as I'm packing up my tools, 
the customer tries a few notes, and I can hear a unison or two 
that has already drifted.  This is usually when a pitch raise 
has just been carried out, but not always.  I'm afraid stability 
is an elusive goal, but we try our best.
    --David Nereson, RPT