<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; = charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1126" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hello Everyone,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I have a client and I service their = very old beat-up grand, which they got for free.  The piano isn't all that = stable but still can hold tune reasonably well.  </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The owners claim they can't even tell = when it's out of tune and that they have a friend that plays it and tells them when = it's time to call the tuner.  </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Whenever I usually get to the piano, = it's usually out by 10 cents or so (I tune it once in the summer and once in the winter).  I'm thinking of just floating the pitch at wherever the = "A" happens to be.  That would save me the trouble of pitch raising and = adding instability to the instrument (since it is so old and not in great shape).</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>What are the thoughts on this?  Am = I, as a piano technician, not servicing the customer properly if I don't always = tune to A-440?  Is it wrong to "cut corners" in this case even though the = client would be oblivious to it all?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Thanks,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Corte = Swearingen</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>