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Spent the day "technician-ing" in a school. I hadn't planned being there for the whole day, but sometimes that happens. I brought some crackers with me. That ended up being my lunch! On my way home, I saw a bald eagle in a field, feasting on a dead animal. Quite the sight! Made me glad I was at the school longer than expected, or I would have missed the eagle.
Eric Gloo Piano Technician Certified Dampp-Chaser Installer Richfield Springs, New York
After 4 50 cent pitch raises, and a pitch lower/fine tuning at a recording studio, piano # 6 turned out to be a Yamaha C-2. Ahhhhhhh and it was at pitch! - nothing like a fine quality piano to put a smile on a tired face!
For a trainee, I would say that you are very well on your way! That was a great opportunity for you and you're right, the young man is amazingly talented.
Now, for the rest of you who get upset every time I say that a piano is in Reverse Well, first of all, Dan's is not and Well, Well, Well, I went to the home of a new customer last Thursday and found about the most perfect ET I have ever heard on a piano I have been asked to tune.
So, it can and it does happen. When I hear a good representation of ET, I'll be more than happy to say so!
I tuned one of those Yamaha P-22's yesterday for a school where strings #13 & 14 have experienced a virtually 100% failure rate. I have tuned this piano any number of times before without a problem. But just my luck, the tuning was for a performance this Friday with a group called "Opera for the Young" that visits all of the local elementary schools.
They put on quite a show for the kids and specify having a piano in good working order tuned to A-440. Since I have tuned the piano any number of times in the past and it does have a humidity control system, it was very close to pitch. Nevertheless, the Bass section needed a slight raise to be at 440.
Wouldn't you know it but upon attempting to tune string #14, BANG! Even though I had long ago decided not to try to splice any of these particular model strings because the core wire is very heavy and there is less than one inch from the V bar to the tuning pin, I thought it would be the best solution. Upon raising the pitch right up to where it belonged, it broke again!
Now I had a problem! I thought I surely don't want to break string #13 too, so I decided to use the trick recommended by Jim Coleman, Sr., to loosen the coil and draw the leading wire forward so that it crosses over the coil. That way, there would not be such a steep angle from the V bar to the tuning pin. I had done this many times before and it always worked.
Upon putting my tuning hammer on the pin and attempting a counterclockwise movement to loosen the string, it also broke! In 43 years as a piano technician, I can only remember once before a string breaking when trying to take down the tension on it!
So, first thing this morning, I had to call Schaff Piano Supply and have two wound strings made and shipped overnight. I'll have to make a late afternoon appointment tomorrow to install them and an early morning appointment Friday to re-tune them, day of show as I will be going out of town to tune multiple pianos for another school solo & ensemble event. The school will have to reach into its urgently needed repair budget for this one because it will surely cost them far more than a tuning does.
What causes your tinnitus? I've had it to for several years and sometimes it's barely noticeable and other times it drives me nuts!
Sorry, I only saw your question now.
I'm not sure what caused it initially, but I think a couple of contributing factors started my tinnitus (and the perception thereof) last year. * mild hearing loss at high frequencies - although subsequent measurements have put this into question * a period of severe personal stress followed by a mild middle ear infection * some form of psycho-acoustic self-(hyper)-awareness, given that my brother had just lost a big chunk of his hearing after meningitis that had him in a coma for 4 days.
Much more than that I can't say.
I've just been to an initial assessment for Tinnitus Retraining Therapy last week, so it's early days yet. Ironically enough, the ear that bothers me most, and that showed some hearing loss last year, showed a 100% normal audiogram this time around, and the other ear showed moderate loss. Then there's also reduced oto-acoustic emissions, a different matter that I don't completely understand yet...
It's a complicated field... (sensory organ, impulse transmission, signal interpretation, sound perception including subconscious reflex-type reactions...)
My musician's earplugs have greatly helped me to get back to my instruments - piano (playing and occasional tuning), church organ, viola.
Sorry, that's all I can say at this stage...
[Edit: I can add one more thing. It's much worse some days, for no apparent reason. The only correlation I've managed to find is that general noise (even the steady, soft grey noise of an aircon) makes it worse. But this is only me - others have told different stories.]
Last edited by Mark R.; 02/28/1211:36 AM. Reason: given in post
Autodidact interested in piano technology. 1970 44" Ibach, daily music maker. 1977 "Ortega" 8' + 8' harpsichord (Rainer Schütze, Heidelberg)
One of my customer's spent $700 on an adjustable, padded artist bench and a sheet music cabinet. They came with a free piano....A worn out Lyon Healy grand. Pedal box separation, mute rail, the hammer shoulders were notched out so they wouldn't hit the mute rail...ha ha......plate and tuning pins all nicely painted.... he got a great deal on that artist bench...........
I did a 6:30 am tuning at the U, then spent the morning as a volunteer photographer for the Juvenile Diabetes walk. My 1pm tuning rescheduled, which I didn't mind, because it's a Steinway Upright in a tent - they hadn't moved it to the tent yet . My 3pm turned out to be an older G Steck console, and I pulled out 83 cents worth of change jamming up the keys, and padded the kick board, because it squeaked when the pedal is depressed. I finished off the evening by changing out a set of broken spring cord flanges. The customer needs the action returned Sunday afternoon so the kids can practice for a competition.
Tuned a Chickering grand made in 1933. The original owner who is 100 years old was present along with her daughter who she lives with. The piano had not been tuned in about 30 years! Was only able to raise it to about -30 as some pins were loose. The 100 year old lady asked her daughter about every five minutes, "who is that man and what is he doing?"
I went with piano shopping with a student of mine. I got into an argument with a jerk of a salesman. His position? Uprights don't have letoff, only grands do. WOW!! He was a jerk before that too.
Then I saw another dealer who practically kissed our butts. Amongst the rest of the Schmoozie talk he even said, "When you buy a piano from me, on the part of the contract that lists what is included, I write 'me'." WOW!!
The wife and I went to the Elton John Concert which as always was awsome, but you might want to check out the Two Cellos, which blew me away. These guys add a dimension to the cello I've never seen before.
A long day yesterday. I left the house at 8 am, and got home at 11 pm. A morning matinee, home tuning in between, and an evening show. The star of the evening show could not make it, as he is almost 90 now and was not feeling up to it, so they got a young up and comer to substitute, as well as the percussionist who has performed with the group in the past. Killer show!
Saturday was my our 33rd anniversary. My youngest son, bought us a luxury suite at the Amway Grand Plaza, the same place we held our PTG convention a couple of summers back. The room was 1,007 square feet! Very large room. 1 & 1/2 baths. You might say we had a "suite" time last night. Spent most of the time in the room talking and enjoying one another's company. Went out to eat across the street to the Bullshead, some of you may remember that place. Great food. My niece runs the place so we visited with her. Had a few drinks then walked back, crawled into bed and talked some more until 3:30 AM! Got up this morning, ate breakfast and came home.... Ahhhhhhhh, what a wonderful gift!!!
Jerry Groot RPT Piano Technicians Guild Grand Rapids, Michigan www.grootpiano.com
Was tuning the high treble on a piano I don't really care for. The first string on B7 was awfully low. Hmmm, that's odd. Oh well, the treble is almost done. Bang! Broke at the becket. One more reason to not care much for this piano...
Jeff Deutschle Part-Time Tuner Who taught the first chicken how to peck?
. My 3pm turned out to be an older G Steck console, and I pulled out 83 cents worth of change jamming up the keys, and padded the kick board, because it squeaked when the pedal is depressed. I finished off the evening by changing out a set of broken spring cord flanges. The customer needs the action returned Sunday afternoon so the kids can practice for a competition. 
