Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Funny side of a job

Me too. But then I do have a touch of OCD, or so I'm told.

What is OCD?

OCD. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

Yes, now I know what it is, and that lady from my story definitely had it.

Imagine if the lady insisted that all the points of the tuning pins be aligned!

I could imagine that too. That reminded me on a situation when there was an army inspection in a navy harbour. Everything was ok, the uniforms of the sailors were perfectly clean and ironed, the y were standing in a perfect rows, the inventory on the battle ships were all polished, and cleaned, every sailor was giving right answer to their questions. So, at the end, the infantry general who was the chief officer of that inspection said that he wants to go to the machine department on one of ships. When he entered there, he took a short look around, and started to scream on a machinists:" Why do that parts of the engine not move all together, like they should do, like the soldiers on a march, do we have an army here, or the group of citizens, next time I come, I want those parts to go uniformly, or your commander will be reported", and so on. The parts he was talking about were the valves of auxiliary ship engine. And this story is not a joke , it happened when I was serving in navy 25 years ago. Has nothing to do with pianotuning job, but it is a nice story about OCD.

Since we are a bit OT, does anyone remember the firing order for a John Deere two cylinder tractor?

Good question. Is it 1-2, or 2-1. I hope that this question will not start the endless discussion. Sometimes I really think that one has to be just a little off the tune to live his life like a piano tuner.

That simply depends where you switched off the engine the last time you used it.

I live in a border area among three countries, Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.So, one day, I received a phone call, and the man from Bosnia, which is only half an hour from my place, asked me if I know how to assemble the upright. So, here is some easy money, was the first thing I thought to myself. I said that it would not be a problem, that it is two minutes job, but that he would have to me a full day fee if he wants me to come there only for that little job. He agreed, so I went there, entered the house, and asked him to show me the upright. He took me outside, and showed a van, saying that the instrument was there. It was little strange to me that he did not move it into the house, and, at the first place, why should it be there disassembled anyway? So, when he opened the back door of that vehicle, I was astonished! There was a million of piano parts there, all disassembled, not just the parts of the cabinet, like front panels, fallboard, and action, which was the way I thought it would be, but the complete upright was staying there all in little parts, the only thing that was in one piece was the back of the upright/ soundboard, strings, plate and pinblock. Even on that, someone has tried to unscrew the big screws which were holding pinblock and the plate together, but he did not succeed, fortunately. So, I had a bunch of piano parts there, all the hammers one by one, all rails, pedals, sides of cabinet, key frame, all the bushings, wherever they exist on piano, now were moved out... I asked the man who was the wise person who did such a mess, and he told that he smuggled that piano over the border from Croatia to Bosnia, without any customs payed, so he had to make it smaller for that reason. So, I started to get that piano together, which was a day and a half job, and a greatest fuss in my carrier. I cursed everybody involved, including him, the custom service, the piano, and myself of course. When the piano was done, I charged him just about twice he would pay the customs, which is very small in all of three mentioned countries, but he did not know that.

I was hoping to read some funny events from the tuners and techs practice, when I started this topic. I am sorry that no one has a good story to tell us. Is it possible that there are no such things in your history? I personally have many of them, but I do not want this to became my autobiographic monologue.

no one will judge you bojan.. i love people who have the ability to appreciate the ludicrous

That's because the funnies have been covered before Bojan in other threads.

I am sorry, can you tell me where I can find them? I am new on this forum, so I did not find something like that. But I hope that there might be some stories that were not described yet, I would like to hear them,just to get a little relaxation from the serious and important topics. Best regards.

heck off hand, I can't recall where we were posting them maybe someone else can remember?

Its not a problem for a posting to repeat if the old one is buried too deep in the past for most people to see. I have a funny occurance that seems to repeat itself every couple years. I get a phone call from someone complaining that their piano doesnt work and am asked how much it will cost to fix it. If I got the time, I will ask them to explain the exact nature of the problem. Several minutes later I find out that its an electronic keyboard that they are talking about. Now, I learned that I ask them first if it is in fact an acoustic piano we are talking about....seems kind of stupid, but some people think they are all the same and that piano techs fix the DP's also.

There was an old piano technician in my country, who was very secretive about his methods and materials,but he didn^t want to directly reject anybody who asked him something. He used a lot of liquids in his work, and they were all neatly lined on a wall shell, with the names on them, like aceton, alcohol, benzine,etc. The younger technicians who came in there, were looking for every his step,trying to remember as much as they could. The important part was his use of liquids. No one has never achieved his results, and that has maybe something to do with the fact that old master has never used the right name on the bottle, so when he , for example , worked with the benzine, it was alcohol, and so on.

The old pianos with oblong pins had all the pins aligned at 45 degrees to the strings to produce the most comfortable angle (in a grand) for the tuner with the 'T'. Hammer they used in those days. I look after an old Broadwood 7' that still has its original pins almost perfectly aligned this way after 110 years of being on a 4 times a year manufacturers tuning contract.
Reminds me of the British brigadeer who insisted the front row of trombones in the band had their slides all moving in unison. Apparenty, one of the bands arrangers re-arranged the trombone harmony of the marches so that this could happen.

Yes, I have a few pianos with such kind of pins, and I had to make a special tuning hammer just for them. When I first saw tone of them, I had to apologize to a client, and asked him to wait one month more, until I get the hammer. I like the story about trombones. Have a nice day.

Which, in turn, reminds me of the #1 rule in scoring for trombones. Be sure to give them a last note in the first position, so they can fit their instruments into their cases when the rehearsal/concert is over.