North and South Pole

Sometimes a day in the life of the piano tuner brings some diametric opposites in the instruments you work on. Take the 31st of May for an example. I was scheduled to tune a concert grand Steinway D in the morning and then on to another brand of piano I was not yet privy to. The Steinway tuned up as expected and after tweaking the highest section so as to make it project a bit more, I packed up and drove over to the next stop. I am not sure why, but somehow, I thought it was a Yamaha console or something else equally predictable.

Wrong on both counts.

It was an early 1970s Wurlitzer spinet that had not been tuned since the 1980s, and when I pulled it away from the wall, I noticed the music desk forlornly stuffed behind the piano and the wall. I was tempted to leave it back there, but this particular customer had several children who were beginning lessons, and they would need that music support. After lifting it out I thankfully discovered it was solid, and the only problem was the missing brass hardware that attaches it to the music desk. I went out to my car, found the correct parts and proceeded to repair the desk. That part of the job was relatively easy, and the result was a fully functioning music desk and rack.

Now, on to the tuning.

Since I had already been informed by my customer how long it had been since the last tuning, I knew from experience that the little piano would be quite flat in pitch. If possible, I like to get a piano back up to A440 or standard pitch, and so I assumed it would be a twice through tuning regimen. However, after finishing the second time, it was still not perfect. Perfect is a very generous term when tuning this type of instrument, but we will use it anyway. So, after the third time through it was holding fine, and the tone, although not quite the same as the Steinway D I tuned earlier that day, the tunes I chose to play sounded remarkably better than when I first arrived.

Ok, though it was still a little spinet and several thousand worlds away from the Steinway D, one thing was more gratifying about tuning that little thing. The joy that the owner displayed when the Wurlitzer was tuned was immensely satisfying. To tell the truth, I will rarely if ever get any affirmation about tuning the Steinway D and I do not expect it. Oh, I am sure they are thankful in their own way, but when you tune concert level instruments people rightfully expect them to sound glorious. But after you tune a piano that sounds truly awful when you begin and when finished sounds very passable and maybe even a tad musical, people are so very happy.

And that makes me so very happy.