<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> <head> <meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 12 (filtered medium)"> <style>  </style>  </head> <body bgcolor=white lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple> <div class=Section1> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'>Hi Ed:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'>That’s just the point – I can’t ever get it to the place where it sounds good for her. I’ve all but killed the hammers in the treble I have needled them down so much, and her response has changed little along the way. Balancing the extremely voiced down treble with my friend Laura’s observation about high frequency hypersensitivity amongst some of the elderly, along with my sessions at the piano with my customer – all very friendly, workmanlike, and non confrontational; brings me to my admittedly layman’s conclusion that my customer has this condition. Short of removing the hammers from the rail, I don’t think I can satisfy her need. I have very developed voicing skills which I take pride in and believe I am good at. It is not a failure of technique or lack of effort on my part. I would very much like to meet her need if I could, but I have arrived at the conclusion that is not possible. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'>Whether your suggestions would moderate her sensitivities, I don’t know.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'>Will<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <div> <div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'> <p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Ed Sutton<br> <b>Sent:</b> Saturday, August 09, 2008 6:02 AM<br> <b>To:</b> Pianotech List<br> <b>Subject:</b> Re: Customer Complaint on Tuning<o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> </div> <p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <div> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:black'>Will-</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal> <span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:black'>This is a person who paid you a good price to make her piano better. She obviously loves music and wants to play and enjoy her instrument.</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:black'>It doesn't really matter what it sounds like to you if you can make it sound good for her, given herhearing difficulties.</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal> <span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:black'>For example youcould make a "moderator," a thin practice mute that only goes over the high treble section. Start with a thin piece of muslin. Mozart's piano had something like this.</span><span style='font-size: 11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal> <span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:black'>You can leave a strip mute in between every other space, effectively converting the instrument to bichord treble unisons, or even mute fully to leave one string per note. You can lay felt on the bridge end of the strings to muffle the sound.</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal> <span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:black'>I recently had a customer in her nineties conclude (after visit to an audiologist) that her hearing was too far gone to play any more. It was not a happy moment. Losing capacities isn't fun. We tend to deny as long as possible.</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal> <span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:black'>Ed Sutton</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid black 1.5pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 4.0pt; margin-left:3.75pt;margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:5.0pt'> <blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid black 1.5pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 4.0pt; margin-left:3.75pt;margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:5.0pt'> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'>I have a customer in her early 80’s whose Knabe grand action I rebuilt about 3 years ago.  When I go to tune the piano (which I do every six months), she is always asking me to voice down the treble.  She says the middle and the bass are just fine, but (and she’ll go over the piano, bang some notes “Hear that, it’s way too bright, it’s awful”).  Well, I’ve voiced the dickens out of top 3 octaves of that piano, it’s like milquetoast to my ears.  The rest of the piano is much brighter, and I’ve voiced this piano enough to feel like I’ve taken too much away;  BUT it’s still too bright to her.  She’s a really sweet lady, and her hearing is not perfect but certainly not at the 120 db TV level yet.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'>We’ve been doing this for a while.  She still likes me and I like her.  But I am thinking to myself, what’s going on here?  So I approached Laura, who is an audiologist and a good friend (we have been teaching skiing at the same mountain in New Hampshire for a number of years) and asked her what might be going on with my customer’s hearing.  She explained to me that there is a condition that some older people can develop where they develop a hypersensitivity to higher frequencies that actually can cause them discomfort when hearing those higher frequencies.   She told me the name of the condition but I have forgotten it since it was last winter when I asked her (sorry).<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'>The person isn’t really aware that they have this condition – they are aware of the symptoms, which cause them discomfort.  Which, of course, makes it hard for them to understand why you are having such a blasé reaction to all this, when (to their mind) it’s so obvious that any fool can hear it.  <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'>Basically, it’s a situation you cannot win.  She doesn’t want to hear “It’s you, Lady!”  <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'>So, yeh Terry, you got it right.  </span><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Smile, wiggle a few tuning pins, and say: "Oh, yeah, that should sound better now...?"</span><o:p></o:p></p> <p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'>Will<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <div> <div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'> <p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p> </div> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a href="http://www.farrellpiano.com">www.farrellpiano.com</a><br> <a href="mailto:terry@farrellpiano.com">terry@farrellpiano.com</a></span><o:p></o:p></p> </div> </blockquote> </blockquote> </div> </body> </html>