Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum What think technicians about of max's temperament?

The equipment sent to Max did not involve anyone but myself and a fellow in Sweden.

The below was posted by Max on January 14th. It seems to me from what I read apparently the instrument was low pitch the day previous to the concert and some strings were replaced.



If the instrument was pitched corrected a couple of weeks previous to the concert, and then fine tuned the day before I suspect the initial recording would have come out sound better than it has.

One should not make excuses for a recording posted as an example of how well someone tunes. If it is a lousy tuning and you know it, there is no need for feedback. The only tunings that should be posted for feedback are one's best.

Max does not have any peers nor does he have a mentor. What he does have is intermittent access to this forum.

If stomping on the guy is viewed as a pleasurable and stimulating experience then Max is not the only one I feel compassion for.

It would be better if he learned to criticize himself, but Max needs to accept criticism rather than being insulted by it, and being insulting about it. His improvement would be much better, and I would find more pleasure and stimulation in helping him if his attitude were better.

His cantankerousness reminds me of you, BDB...

But you're right. Unfortunately he's been doing this a long time without having any peers, and is very proud of what he does.

Teaching him to tune properly across a massive language barrier over the internet is a big task!

On free forums, I assist without expectation or conditions attached. If there are certain conditions to having involvement then perhaps a re- assessment is necessary on your part.

A couple suggestions, first for Max...

Keep working at it. Study some more about tuning, you still have a long way to go. Ignore insults. If you are going to post a tuning, maybe record a before and after tape. It lets people put things in better perspective of what conditions the pianos are in that you face. I worked in parts of eastern europe 20 years ago where I lifted the lid on the piano and I swear, it could have flown away on its own from all the moths that came out. Missing or rusted strings, felt held in place with snot, shoelace/pully trap work ect.... A shoemaker was my only source for materials.

For others, maybe follow the golden rule. People from Germany don't come here to this site and ridicule Y'all for the N.A. version of a half a**ed repair, laugh at the powder wig temperaments, or comment on digital spinner crutch tuning clips. They prefer to sit around a table and spray beer out of their noses laughing instead.

Max doesn't accept constructive criticism. Instead, he gives it.... to us... The people he is asking for help. For example, like using cardboard to fix a loose tuning pin instead of a larger sized pin, then tuning the piano a semi tone flat because it won't take the pitch raise? He tells us that a larger sized pin will do damage to the hole. A person like that is not going to get much respect from us and we, should not be expected to give it either. But I can, leave this thread and Max to his own demise, whatever that might be and I will.

Kamin says Max has been in here for 2 years now so, he's more experienced. 2 years gives experience? I've known people that have been tuning pianos for 30 years and they still can't tune.

So how many years haven't some of the rest of us been tuning? Me? Since I was 12. That makes it 45 years this spring. I should be reallllllllllllllllllly good by now eh??? haha!

If a person wants constructive and objectionable criticism and asks for it, then that same person had better accept it rather than argue with people that are telling him that his tuning needs improvement. Don't tell me that it sounds good and that out of tune unison's sound okay when they do not. Because we will not agree.

So Max, if you want people to be nice to you? Be nice to them.... OK?

I wanted to help Max at first. I even put up a youtube video to show how to rebush a flange.

One tech even sent him a hammer. His videos afterwards, he was still using his t-bar.

The language barrier is what kept me hoping that he was genuinely interested in improving.

Now, language barrier or not, geez.

Max, I never get to the end of your videos. I don't understand a word, you look like you are teaching a lesson, and you obviously are not good enough to do that.

Listen to the good advice that is given here. Be grateful, ask questions.

Who knows? You started a topic and some of us are still writing.

All the best.

Jean

Speaking as a musician with a lifelong interest in tuning, not as a piano technician, I think this sounds fine. Given the state of the piano, which is not up to USA concert standards, it is not clear if you could do better with just tuning (as opposed to revoicing etc). I believe Kamin from France believes this too.

When I listen I am more concerned with the excessive tempi and the seriousness of the playing. After all Mozart was a silly drunk, and his compositions show it. It should not be played as if it was profound. (Warning: peculiar personal opinion.)

There are definitely unisons which stand out as being "bad". But as you mentioned before, this can be due to the "cross sections" not matching, meaning false beats. I can (and will if requested politely) post a unison A3 on my piano, which sounds worse than the "bad" unisons in your recording. Yet if 5 top piano tuners from the Western world would spend 3 hours on it they would not be able to improve it. (They are of course not allowed to replace the strings.)

Why? Because the strings don't match (what the DBD anymous poster said "should not be so").

Now listening to the Mozart I can hardly believe this is the same tuning as you posted before because it sounds so much better. But it may be my own mind that likes music. The compositions played in the first video of this concert I do no consider to be music. This is my (admittedly eccentric) opinion.

More generally I think if you had not tuned that Blüthner there would have been no concert. So obviously you did a good thing. Did it have 4 strings in the upper octave? Did you tune those too? The piano sounds worse to me in the upper octaves.

Finally, did the concert organizer and piano teachers of the players give you any feedback on the tuning?

After all a piano tuner should make the customer happy, and that is the most important thing.

Another good result of your post is that Dan Silverwood made some good posts. I thought I hated him, but this made me change my mind.

Tongue in cheek of course on the latter remarks.

Kees

Thank,Johnkie for good words and max works

Thank,Kees.I'm shall try and develop skills

Max, always pleasure with all

Not only has Max improved in 2 years but, in looking back through his original threads, they have been an incredible catalyst for change in all of us.

Max was met with incredibly parochial self righteous condemnation from some posters. It became clear very early that the only way was through education.

This attempt at education has tempered those condemning attitudes, those same people are now posting advice and encouragement.

It has been said that travel broadens the mind. The cultural differences between all of us that were brought out and explored in the process of helping Max has quietly and gradually changed all of our attitudes. It has been a journey in itself without having to go anywhere.

Thanks, Max, for being so delightfully annoying, arrogant, stubborn, sensitive,.....

Something had to change.... and we did.

Here's to its continuing

Not all pianos in the forgotten by God Kazakhstan to tuning in the right tone. However, the message rxd is a philosophical essay, mobilizes the presence of mind of Max.
Max is very happy that him was able its modest presence on the forum make a live stream in the discussions every themes.
Max will work and he shall listen all
My respect to the participants in our forum

I've never met anybody from Kazakhstan, but I always wanted to know how Kazakhstanis feel about the movie "Borat"? Are you angry about it?

ando,I personally have not seen the movie, just a few excerpts. I'm not offended by Borat, art lies in the fact that to make people think from joke. To tell the truth, the life in Kazakhstan is much "comical than this travesty"

A couple of years ago I caught up with a cousin who immigrated from Moscow in the Seventies. She grew up in Kazakhstan thanks to Stalin's anti-Semitic purges, but eventually her father was able to reclaim his appointment as a professor of music at Moscow State University. She's a very proper and respectable lady and I didn't dare ask her about Borat. Of course the joke in the film is meant to be that Baron-Cohen's victims are so ignorant, but I'm sure a lot of people never catch on to that subtlety.

Andy

Hi,Kees. The concert was held to the weather."Show must go on". This grand, how to express their feeling of one of the teachers of piano last time sounded like far in 1982, when visited Uralsk was moscow's tuner. I was pleased to hear the words of appreciation from the audience, and most importantly from artists of Chrismas concert .
Indeed I tuning alivkvont fourth string, which is higher than the other one octave higher. I did it intuitively, some of them were so configured. I tried not to make a mistake and I did pulling the string an octave higher. Maybe I'm wrong to do this?

Andy,Borat and Kazakhstan do not know about each other it's to happiness