Gerry, I had a similar experience with a woodwind player years ago. I tuned our concert hall grand in preparation for an upcoming sax recital. The saxophone prof came to my office after he had been to the recital hall and said the piano was way off. I said to myself, "Surely, close enough for jazz."
I had tuned the piano aurally, but I had used my ETD to set the A. I checked the piano with my ETD and it measured right on A440. But, I was suspicious, so I pulled out my low-tech check-my A440 tuning fork. The piano was considerably off with the fork. Which pitch source was right? I checked the fork against the ETD-way off.
I retuned the piano to the fork. As it turned out, my ETD had malfunctioned. I had to send it in for service.
Another brief related story happened to an older technician who had basically lost hearing in the top two octaves. One day he neglected to change the note shifting and the top two octaves ended up being 1/2 step flat. How he didn't notice that even if he was deaf is a mystery. He would have to be moving those top notes a long way to make the pitches a 1/2 step higher or lower.
The message in both stories is be sure your ETD is functioning properly, i.e., keep it serviced, and be sure you're using it properly, i.e., be sure to read the instruction manual/app carefully and review it occasionally.
Richard West
Original Message:
Sent: 3/6/2023 10:33:00 AM
From: Gerry Johnston
Subject: RE: Every Note Perfectly In Tune
This reminded me of a tuning I did about a year ago. A nice Yamaha grand. The customer called me the next day and insisted that I had tuned the piano a whole step sharp. At first I was speechless. He was clearly upset about this so I was careful in responding. Once I picked my jaw up off the floor I explained how surprising this would be. Raising the pitch that much would have required multiple passes, lots of extra time, and possibly quite a few broken strings. I offered to go back to check it, but first asked him what caused him to conclude that it was so sharp. Well - his next door neighbor had come over with his clarinet so they could play duets and "it sounded terrible." I explained to him that the clarinet is a Bb transposing instrument and that was the end of it!
The moral of the story is never underestimate the potential ignorance of your customer (or their neighbor's). So much of what we do comes down to translating what they are saying into what they really mean.
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Gerry Johnston
Haverhill, MA
gj@gjpianotuner.com
www.gjpianotuner.com
(978) 372-2250
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-05-2023 14:56
From: James Kelly
Subject: Every Note Perfectly In Tune
Ashley makes a great point. The Baldwin acro is not a Yamaha grand. If he is fixated on C8 show him the C8 on the two pianos, how short the strings are etc. The high frequency may be beyond his hearing range if in fact the hammer is even hitting the string. You could slide the action on the grand in a little to get C8 to hit the plate .
Another suggestion is if you have an accutuner you could demonstrate how sharp or flat a note is from the calculated tuning. There is also a way to produce the sound of each note of the Accutuner using a speaker and using that sound as a reference point.
My Sanderson Accu-Fork is quite useful in showing customer what the piano should match if it is at 440. This is very valuable when trying to explain pitch raises and how "sour" the piano is . You play A4 as you slide the slider flat and the sour tone gets less and less .
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James Kelly
Owner- Fur Elise Piano Service
Pawleys Island SC
(843) 325-4357
Original Message:
Sent: 03-05-2023 14:27
From: Ashley Turner
Subject: Every Note Perfectly In Tune
Scott said, "
His church had a used Yamaha grand recently donated to them and my tunings on it have been just great. He loves how it sounds!"
Maybe he expects the Wurlitzer to sound like the Yamaha did?
That's where a conversation about brand, age, condition, size, model, etc. come into play.
It's good to reach out to friends and colleagues when something is bothering you :-)
Original Message:
Sent: 3/1/2023 9:58:00 AM
From: Scott Kerns
Subject: Every Note Perfectly In Tune
🤖 Warning, warning! This is a long post!
I had a customer this week make a request of me. He sat at the piano, spread his arms over the keyboard and instructed me that he wanted every note to be perfectly in tune over the whole scale of the piano. It seemed as though this was a new idea to him. I thought at first maybe he was joking but I quickly stopped myself from laughing. I then asked him, "What is it you think I do?". He looked at me and said, "I have no idea!".
Now, some background. I've known this person for many years although not well. I've tuned various pianos for him, none of them were very nice and always needed pitch raises. The piano at his house that I tuned maybe three times, was a Wurlitzer spinet and it was usually in different houses (he moves a lot). He's probably about 60 years old and has played piano since his childhood. He's a very good player!
This particular piano I was tuning for him this week was a different one. It was his mothers and it's the one he played growing up. It's a 1968 Baldwin Acrosonic. This model is a little taller so it looks like a console but has the spinet action. It's in very good shape and, for an Acrosonic, has a nice sound and even though many of the hammers are sluggish, he LOVES the way it plays and feels. He's had it for 10 years or so and is just now having it tuned. I tuned it November 1, 2022 and did a pitch raise on it. Humidity was about 50% then. He played it after I was done and thought it sounded great. We've had a very strange winter here, as many places have. One day it's 5 degrees and the next day it's 60 degrees!! Just a roller-coaster. This time when I tuned it the humidity was 25%. So, no surprise at all that it was out of tune!
We talked for a bit, and I explained some things about piano tuning like unisons and how we work to get "every note perfectly in tune", at least with itself. He then wanted to go over the lowest single bass strings. Most of them sounded fine to him except, if I remember correctly, the F# octave. He wanted it tuned much lower. It was really beating! But, as I told him, you're the one who has to hear it. He played the piano and seemed satisfied with it and honestly I felt I did a fabulous job on it. If that tuning hadn't satisfied him, I'm not sure what I would have done.
For some reason I'm having a hard time letting this go. Being instructed that he wanted, "Every note perfectly in tune." and feeling he needed to tell me that, keeps going through my head. And the person saying it, having no idea what he's talking about! Maybe he actually does know what he's talking about but didn't want to say, "Every tuning you've done for me sucked!"
There is one more detail. His church had a used Yamaha grand recently donated to them and my tunings on it have been just great. He loves how it sounds!
I know there is no answer to this situation but it felt good to write it out to people who would understand. Thanks for listening!
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"That Tuning Guy"
Scott Kerns
Lincoln, Nebraska
www.thattuningguy.com
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