Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
FEBRUARY 17, 1923
OuTTECHNICAL DEPARTMENT
CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM BRAID WHITE
PRICES, EDUCATION AND PEOPLE
With Some Observations on One Most Mean
Fraud—What a Pacific Coast Brother Thinks
About the Entire Situation
Dear Brother White:—Some months ago in
your columns a price list was printed showing
the charges made by a certain brother for all
kinds of work on pianos and players. This
interested me because I made up my mind
many years ago that piano tuning is a profession
of a high order and that as a professional man
a tuner is entitled to demand and receive a
price. The only fixed price I have is for tuning,
and my charges are for uprights or squares,
$5; player-pianos, $7.50, and grand pianos, $7.50.
On all other work I make a price for each
separate case, charging enough to yield a good
profit after the cost of material has been fig-
ured in.
Of course, one has to gauge the price to be
charged for tuning according to the city in
which one is working. When I first came here
the price for tuning was $3.50, but the other
tuners here agreed to make it $5 owing to the
advance in the prices of all other services and
commodities. I find that it is just as easy to
get $5 as it was to get $3.50, especially as the
majority of piano owners only have their pianos
tuned about once in five years.
The Horrible Example
There have been several articles in the trade
papers at different times telling tuners to edu-
cate the people to have their pianos tuned at
least once a year. Let me relate an experi-
ence I had this very week. When you have
read it perhaps you too will ask, "Can they be
educated?"
I was called to tune a piano in a certain
home, but found during the day that I should
be unable to keep the appointment. A new
one was therefore made for two days later.
Upon arriving I opened up my grip and started
to try the piano for pitch. I then said to the
lady of the house, "Your piano is fearfully out
of tune," whereupon, to my great surprise, she
began to laugh. Knowing her very well I ven-
tured to ask, "What is so funny?" Then she
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FAUST SCHOOL
OF TUNING
|
told me that her daughter, who is in high school,
upon coming home the day I was originally
expected, sat down to the piano and said, "Oh,
Mother, doesn't the piano sound fine since the
tuner was here?"
I told the mother that probably, when the
piano had been put in tune, the daughter would
wonder what was the matter with it.
The Source of the Evil
There has also been a great deal of difficulty
in the player business because owners do not
retain their interest after buying. Many articles
have also been written on this subject and it is
asked why so many owners become knockers
instead of remaining boosters. For one thing,
the majority of firms who sell player-pianos
never teach the purchasers how to play and
never call on the purchasers, after the sale is
made, to see how they are getting on. In the
second place, more than half the salesmen (I
am safe in saying "more than one-half") can-
not play a player properly. Here is an instance:
I was called to look over a Gulbransen player
in a certain store. The salesman said that it
needed tuning and was not working rightly.
I tuned it, but found that it played all right
and so simply oiled the metal parts which
needed oil and went away. Three days later,
when I went to the store again on other busi-
ness, the same salesman approached me and
complained that I had not fixed the player.
I said, "Get a music roll and show me what is
wrong." He did so, inserted it and started to
pump. It sounded fierce, and he said, "See?"
1 replied, "There is nothing wrong with the
instrument, but something very wrong with
you. You do not know how to handle this
player, that is all." He was very angry, but I
said, "Let me prove it to you." Then I showed
him that the tracker-bar had been thrown out
of adjustment and that the thumb-screw in the
spool box should be slightly turned to bring it
back again. He admitted that he had never
known what the thumb-screw was for or that
there was a tracker adjustment.
Now, say I, how can we expect people to
become enthused when those from whom they
buy cannot handle rightly what they are trying
to sell?
The "By Mail" Fraud
Before closing I wish to add a few but forci-
ble words about one piano tuning school which
undertakes .to teach the art by mail (I can give
you the name of the school if you want it). A
barber who shaves me asked me recently
whether 1 would teach him to tune and what
I would charge. I told him that I had never
taught any one and doubted if I had the pa-
tience to try. However, I had him come to
my shop one day recently and on his arrival
I at once asked him if he had ever taken up
the matter before he came to me. He said that
he had taken a three months' course by cor-
TUNERS
(Continued on page 12)
POLKS
Here are
BASS STRINGS
TUNINO
with upwards
1OOO
' SUCCESS rut.
GRADUATES
Special attention |lv»n to tbo needi of the tuner and tho dealer
OTTO R. TREFZ, Jr.
SI 10 Falrmouut Avenue
Philadelphia, Pa.
The TUNER'S FRIEND
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respondence. So I tested his ear by letting him
try to tune one note in unison. He could not
do it. I asked if he had ever tried to tune a
temperament. He said that he had and that
he would bring down the temperament-getter
which the school had sent him.
The next week he brought what the school
had sent. There was the guide to temperament
(some reeds in a wooden frame with a rubber
blowing tube), some charts of piano actions, a
tuning hammer of the cheapest kind, some tools
of the same kind, a few pieces of repair stuff
and a single section of an action with key, such
as some factories send out for wareroom dis-
play. Last, but not least, he had two diplomas,
a small one for the pocket and a large one for
framing, telling the world that the bearer had
graduated from the school with high honors.
Now, I can assure you that, in all probability,
this man will never learn to tune. He cannot
even whistle a tune. He has paid out good
money for absolutely nothing. 1 think that the
National Association of Piano Tuners ought to
look into schools of this sort and stop their
work.
There are good reliable schools, but they do
not teach by mail. Such schools as the one I
have mentioned hurt us all. Very truly yours,
James C. Boies, Eureka, Cal.
Three Texts and a Sermon
Brother Boies has been generous. He has
supplied me with no less than three pregnant
texts. Let me see what justice I can do to
each of them in a short space.
First of all, then, let me refer all readers to
the recent article in which I argued for an all-
inclusive charge based on the popular idea that
a "tuning" means an adjustment of any small
difficulty, whether acoustical or mechanical,
which does not require new parts and does not
involve taking down and readjusting any whole
element of the instrument. In arguing for such
an all-inclusive charge I insisted that it is use-
less to try to teach the people what is meant
by the word "tuning" and that in fact to most
people it has virtually no meaning at all.
The fact that there exists in every community a
certain limited group of musical people, includ-
ing professional and amateur musicians, is
nothing to the point. It but serves to empha-
size the gross darkness in which the mass of
the people lives.
If, therefore, any practical solution of the
tuner's economic problems is to be found, some
satisfactory relationship between him and his
clients must be established upon a basis com-
mon to both. The all-inclusive charge is based
upon the undoubted truth that most men and
women have no knowledge to enable them to
criticize the tuner's work and that in conse-
quence the charges they are called on to pay
Now atria all loathor bridle atrap
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