<!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 6.00.2800.1141" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Charles, you're doing fine!!  = Things are harder at first. Rest assured that they'll get better. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>    With a 120 cent = pitch raise, you don't have to apologize for anything. The piano's going to want to go = out of tune almost immediately. I would have advised them to get the piano out = of the way of the vent, though. And next time, tell them you have to come back = in a month, for a regular tuning.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>    Live and learn, = that's what you're doing, and I have to encourage you. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Kevin.</FONT></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; = BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: = black"><B>From:</B> <A title=piano@charlesneuman.net = href="mailto:piano@charlesneuman.net">Charles Neuman</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A = title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, March 06, 2003 = 9:11 PM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> first gigs!</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV>I had my first two "real" customers recently (i.e. = paying customers who I<BR>didn't know). I learned a few things:<BR><BR>1) = Both customers wanted me to be done after about 1.5 hours. It took me = 2<BR>hours to tune one piano and to fix a slow key. On the other piano, it = took<BR>me 2.5 hours to do a 120 cent pitch raise and a fine tuning. So in = the<BR>future I think I'll warn ahead of time how much time I need.<BR><BR>2) Since I = left in a hurry, each customer got a free mute in the bottom of<BR>their = piano. From now on, I'm tying two mutes together with string.<BR><BR>3) It's all = about the unisons.<BR><BR>4) About that 120 cent pitch raise: As I was closing = up the piano, I<BR>noticed heat from the electric baseboard heater right = behind the piano.<BR>What's going to happen in the summer? Will the piano be 120 = cents sharp?<BR>The fact is, the piano hadn't been tuned for 7 years, so = much of the 120<BR>cents might be from that. I wonder how much is from the dry = heat, though.<BR>The piano was surprisingly in tune with itself for not = being tuned in 7<BR>years.  Kimball spinet. Not so bad. There was a little = rust on the<BR>strings, but I used a tiny amount of CLP and also dropped pitch = before<BR>raising. No broken strings.<BR><BR>5) Using Tunelab for the = pitch raise: You need to set your tuning curve<BR>before doing the pitch = raise. But measuring inharmonicity is not accurate<BR>when a note is 120 cents = flat as the harmonic structure is different than<BR>it will be when the note = is in tune. So, you can rough tune the notes<BR>you'll meausure. Problem: = You don't have a tuning curve yet, so how do you<BR>tune them? The Tunelab = manual suggests using a generic tuning curve to<BR>rough tune the notes = you'll use to measure inharmonicity. Since I haven't<BR>made a generic tuning curve = yet, what I did was just took the measurements<BR>as the notes were (but = matching up the piano's C# with Tunelab's C). Then<BR>after the pitch raise, I = measured inharmonicity again and made a new<BR>tuning curve for the fine = tuning. It worked out well. The fine tuning<BR>didn't require too much change, = expect maybe in the top octave. But<BR>everything else was amazingly = close.<BR><BR>6) It's hard work. But then you get paid! :)<BR><BR>Charles Neuman<BR>PTG = Assoc, Long = Island<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>_______________________________________________= <BR>pianotech list info: <A = href="https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives">http://www.ptg.org= /mailman/listinfo/pianotech</A><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>