<html> <body> Do an hourly rate; well maintained pianos tune quickly.  I did a full two-pass pitch correction (weather) on a D in less than two hours and it has stabile through a "barn-storming" concert.  Irregular customers want to know exactly how much it will cost.  Regular customers will appreciate not being flat-fee'd.  That one month trial period should make clear to them what you will cost on an hourly basis.  You could say that your flat-fee is this but that you figure hourly would be cheaper on a well maintained piano and keep track of the time and show them how it works.  Really this should involve more than just tuning.  Assess the piano frankly when you review it.  Its current condition may not be due to the previous technician.  You may be the 20-mile-expert that convinces them to get the job done right by confirming what the previous technician had been telling them.  With regular playing there should be some occasional sugar coating of the hammers and annual technicals to keep the action at its best.  There should be matched spare bass strings stored ready to replace any that break (tieing is great when it is possible) and a spare set of hammer shanks & flanges as well as whippens would be wise (moving A0 whippen up to F4 will get you through in a pinch but isn't ideal).  Good Luck, Andrew At 07:04 AM 7/6/2006, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Hello List,   Can you help?  I have situation that I have never had before and need some wisdom on how to proceed.   A large local church called me and asked for a proposal to tune their sanctuary piano.  The tuner that they did have was a member of the church and tuned it every week….yes every week.  The church is involved with a TV ministry and I am guessing that it might need “tweaked” every week.   I am told that the piano will NOT be moved as much as it was in the past and they are thinking that perhaps tuning it every other week would be sufficient.  I did tell the caller that it sounds reasonable, but if they feel it continues to need the weekly tuning, then I would work with them.   The music department secretary was very kind and not gruff at all, but I am not sure what kind of fee to propose to them.  It would be great to have the steady work, but I don’t want to undersell my services either.   They wish to have a month “trial period” to see if things work out.  I said that it sounded fair to me.   I am used to tuning a piano twice a year, so twice a month is new to me.   Is there anyone out there who can share some wisdom with me on how I might proceed?   Does anyone have a similar situation but the church/institution has you on a retainer fee ?   Brian P. Doepke AAA Piano Works, Inc. Piano Tuning-Repair-Purchase Consults 260-432-2043 260-417-1298  </blockquote> </body> </html>