<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> <title></title> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> <br> <br> <br> " Great devices for having people understand technical jargon. "We who are <br> techs., assume that most people can understand what we're talking about<br> when we say pitch raise. Telling someone that their piano is 50 cents flat,<br> almost always gets that glazed over look.  I often tell peole that because <br> their piano is flat, it will have to be tuned 2 or 3 times to get it to settle at pitch.<br> It is similar to painting a plaster wall , which hasn't seen paint for 10 or 20<br> years. You know  what happens to the first coat ?  Well almost all people<br> will say that the paint seems to sink into the plaster,  but the next coat usually<br> makes a bigger difference.  Of course , it isn't unusual to have to paint a third <br> time, if you really want a good job.  Most times , 2 tunings are pretty good, and<br> will suffice till the next scheduled tuning, say in 6 months or so. If in a concert<br> setting, one might have to tune maybe 3 or 4 times that week. <br> <br> Carl / Winnipeg<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> jason kanter wrote: <blockquote cite="midALEDKPDIAIDEIGKAONDOAELLCMAA.jkanter@rollingball.com" type="cite"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; "> <meta content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2604" name="GENERATOR"> <style></style> <div><span class="474542104-13022005"><font color="#0000ff" face="Trebuchet MS" size="2">I love these phrases, thank you so much. </font></span></div> <blockquote style="margin-right: 0px;" dir="ltr"> <div class="OutlookMessageHeader" align="left" dir="ltr"><font face="Tahoma" size="2">-----Original Message-----<br> <b>From:</b> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org">pianotech-bounces@ptg.org</a> [<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org">mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org</a>]<b>On Behalf Of </b>Cy Shuster<br> <b>Sent:</b> Saturday, February 12, 2005 4:58 PM<br> <b>To:</b> Pianotech<br> <b>Subject:</b> Country units<br> <br> </font></div> <div><font size="2">I love tuning for people here in southern West Virginia.  They're down-to-earth, and a lot more sophisticated than you might expect.  Very much into music: churches with a dozen instruments in the sanctuary (guitars, drums, keyboards).</font></div> <div> </div> <div><font size="2">However, I've found different ways of expressing concepts, especially since there's so much familiarity with guitars.  For example, instead of "100 cents flat", I just say "It's a fret low".  Instead of "a piano has between 220 and 250 strings", I say "tuning a piano is like tuning 40 guitars".  That one even got my attention!  Since<em> </em>I always make at least two passes, one tuning's the equivalent of 80 guitars -- 120 with a pitch raise!  To describe a pitch raise, I give the example of moving a house to a new foundation.  If one corner was way low and you jacked it up, something else would get thrown out as a result, so you'd have to go around once to get it close before trying to make the floors really level.</font></div> <div> </div> <div><font size="2">Instead of "tuning pins pressed into a laminated pinblock", I say "they're nailed into holes drilled into butcher block", or I use the example of violin pegs with a friction fit instead of guitar tuners with gears.  "Delamination" is "like kitchen chairs coming unglued in wintertime".  I often take off the bottom cabinet panel on uprights and point out the similarities to a guitar: strings terminating at the rim, running over a bridge.</font></div> <div> </div> <div><font size="2">What I like the best is still to check out a piano, and when they ask me how bad it is, saying simply "It's a fret low".</font></div> <div> </div> <div><font size="2">--Cy Shuster--</font></div> <div><font size="2">Bluefield, West By God Virginia</font></div> <div> </div> <div> </div> </blockquote> </blockquote> <br> </body> </html>