Has to be barking dogs - especially those small 'yippy' dogs!

Why tune against anything? I use my trusty noise canceling tuning system NoCATS.

Sound and microphone checks while concert tuning is a close 2nd. Or, stage set up. ("CHECK, CHECK, CHECK, CHECK, TESTING, TEST, TESTING, CHECK, CHECK, CHECK, CRASH" as something falls over behind you while they are moving crap around the stage etc.

Vacuum cleaners.

Ive been tuning pianos since I was 9 years old, so as long as the ambient noise isnt louder than the piano, its no problem, although I do charge allot extra for ambient noise as it takes longer of course, just to be sure.

The worse put off, is people walking past or around near me, as this disturbs the sound waves and gives false sounds. First time I noticed this I realized how sonar was invented.

overhead cieling fans - not real audible but are a distractor.
oboes.
some video games,
people that try to make conversation or ask questions.

People that hum the same note that you are tuning.

Or not.

Overhead ceiling fans are really obnoxious. It isn't the sound, per se, but what it does to the sound of the piano--beats 'em right back at you.

A partial list of other distracting/annoying sounds

Running water
clanking kitchenware
screaming children

leaf blowers
lawn mowers
chain saws
jack hammers

I'm most easily irritated by noises at the end of the afternoon after a full day of tuning.

Lawn mowers outside the window are something I simply cannot compete with. I take a break until they move on.

I'll put in my vote for ceiling fans as well.

It reminds me of a funny story...

A friend of mine called me a while back and she was really afraid that the soundboard on her piano must have come apart or have something seriously wrong with it because her piano all of the sudden was just sounding awful! Interestingly she said it only seemed to do it in hot weather - so she thought the heat must exacerbate the problem. The next afternoon I stopped by to check on it - it was quite hot in the room, but the piano sounded fine. She just couldn't understand why it sounded OK. (we all know that problems see the technician coming and decide to hide while we are there, only to come back after we leave!)

Since I couldn't find anything wrong we left it at "call me if it does it again". Then we started chatting, but before I left she decided to try the piano one last time: It sounded TERRIBLE. However, this time I recognized the problem right away. While we were chatting she had turned on her new and larger ceiling fan! Of course she only used the fan on hot days. She turned it off the day I stopped by to make sure the room was extra hot!

Yep, Ceiling fans really are buggy!

Dishes clanking, running water, kids or animals running around the room, babies crying, leaf blowers.

I do like to listen to the TV while tuning, especially CNBC.

By the way customers.....we can hear everything when we tune. This is NOT the time to have a private telephone conversations - not that we are nosy, but we can hear every word.

True, Bob. Your ears get so tuned in to hearing minute differences in pitch, that everything else gets accentuated, too.

For those of you who tune in piano stores does the sound of customers banging on nearby pianos bother you?

Birds. Especially birds in cages right next to the piano. I had to leave one piano untuned because the birds wouldn't stop. It probably didn't help that the cages were from floor to ceiling, and there were too many birds to count. Come to think of it, the smell in the house wasn't too pleasing, either...

Ceiling fans are bad. One church I tune for has a nice Charles Walter vertical. I went to tune, and couldn't believe how awful it sounded. Then I noticed the newly installed ceiling fans in the sanctuary. Problem was, I couldn't find the switch to turn them off. So, I rolled the piano into an adjacent room. Like magic, the piano was in tune.

One of my most colorful customers who owned a museum full of musical collectibles had about 30 Grandfather clocks that ALL CHIMED! (not all at the same time)
Tuning her 9' white & gold Chickering Grand took a little longer than the usual time needed for a "normal tuning".

Side note: Hammond organ only made 2500 player 'B' organs and she owned 2 of them in working condition!

Ceiling fans can be turned off. Try an old bar that has some noisy refrigeration boxes. Most of that really old clunky stuff has died.

For those of you who tune in piano stores does the sound of customers banging on nearby pianos bother you?
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Yes but you learn to work around it.
Sometimes you are asked to stop tuning while the customer plays.
Tuned at the NAMM show last year - there were maybe 6 or more tuners in the same area - all needed to do the work at the same time and go home - you just learn to work around it.

Regis and Kelly show in the background and the View.

This is one area where an ETD would have an advantage. Assuming that the extraneous noise wasn't too loud, and ETD would be relatively impervious to it. Especially one with a magnetic pickup.

Vacuums just stop me cold. 'Dunno' why. The "ETD" under my hat doesn't have a magnetic pickup ... thankfully.

As Bob mentioned, we can hear you folks! I always feign innocence by way of concentrating on the piano, but two or three rooms away is seldom enough isolation. The CIA should enlist a few piano tuners. It's amazing what a tuner can hear! Or, maybe not. Most of us DO use our ears.

The seductive voice from a customer’s 20 year old daughter: very distracting. Happens all the time, but somehow I don’t mind…

Vacuum cleaners are at the top of the list for me. Also any 60hz hum like from PA equipment or old fluorescent lights.

When a customer comes in to the store, it's standard etiquette to stop tuning so the salesman can make a presentation. I resolve the that problem by requesting a key to the store and tuning before or after hours. No customers then, and I can have piano parts all over the floor without fear of people tripping on them. The salespersons appreciate that too.

The wife startin' in again with "You spend too much time with that damn piano and not enough with me!"

Hey Jurgen, that noise cancelling NoCaTS system may be just the thing for me.

Jerry,

I agree with you here. Overwhelming noises will cause me on rare occasion to tune an entire piano using my ETD. It's nice to have the option.

Cuckoo Clocks that sound every 15 minutes.

UprightTooner,
I'd rather have your distraction than mine.

It gets old, just ask Brad Pitt.

A woman, with an already loud voice, talking 3 times louder than necessary on the phone.

UprightTooner,
Now I know how you got that name.