[pianotech] high and outside

[Leslie Bartlett]

I get a little scared at every tuning.................  Now my new hearing
aids are giving me just hell, so Friday I did most of a D with no hearing
aids, but with TL and what ears are left. One of the finer pianists (being
gorgeous didn't really make her pianist she is) was there critiquing every
note.  So, I guess there are a few more days left before I shoot myself like
a half dead horse-though I've never actually seen a horse shoot himself.I
guess every business has its hacks. I was called a month after a tuning by
the person who was the CTE in  my testing, another call from a person who
had used this person to "voice" his Schimmel.  I couldn't figure why he was
griping, except he said Mr. CTE had made his Schimmel louder rather than
softer.  I asked him to play 8 measures of anything, got out my regulation
tools and simply compromised aftertouch a bit to raise the let-off, and he
was a happy camper. I got a third call within a three month period about
work from this same person, who charges considerably more than I.  And I get
scared about my work on a regular basis......................

Was tuning the D Friday- oh the one who was not so long ago doing shopping,
and ended up because of board pressure not to take the time to fully
investigate yours( at SMU )and she said she really LOVED yours. But there
was the guy with the big money, who was quite impatient to "just get
something fast."
les 

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Ron Nossaman
Sent: Saturday, October 27, 2012 11:16 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: [pianotech] high and outside


This morning, I tuned (at) a Whitney console. The lady said the last 
tuner had tuned it twice a couple of years ago. I assumed it had needed 
a pitch raise. Inside, the card indicated a February 2010 date, and RH 
reading of 34%. I stripped it up and found the center about 30¢ sharp! I 
couldn't see anything good coming of me trying to explain that I needed 
to do a pitch lowering on a piano that had been pitch raised 2-1/2 years 
ago, so I just pressed on.

As I went over the piano, I found the bass (all of it) slightly flat, 
the center 30¢ sharp, F-5 to F-6 almost on pitch, suddenly going to well 
over a half semitone sharp from there on up. Bizarre! There is no way 
this piano was anywhere near being in an acceptable state of tune when 
the last tuner left it. The uniformity of the aberrations indicated that 
what was done was intentional, but I saw no sense at all to the pattern.

Even being all wild strings in the top half, which is characteristic of 
the breed, it sounded a whole lot better when I left it. Better than 
she's ever heard it, in fact. If she calls next year as I suggested, 
we'll both win.

The kind of work that's being done out there scares me.
Ron N