What were the most tunings you ever did in one day?
[I did 17 once]

Please describe for us that day.

This is a bit of a tricky question. What exactly do you mean by tune? I did 9 contest tunings at a highschool a dozen years ago or so. I started at around 4pm and got home about 1am! I felt pretty rummy at the end.

17? Were those hour long tunings or what?? I can't imagine these were high-quality tunings. But maybe you are super man!

9 in one day for me, after driving 2 hours to go do them, then driving 2 hours back home after wards.

9 at NAMM for Kawai years ago. I don't think I could do that now.

I also did 9 few years ago, all at the same school, so I didn^t have to drive anywhere, but I would not like to repeat that. It is not very human.

I did ten once at a college, but that was in my....ahem...younger days. It wasn't enjoyable, though.

I would think doing 17 tunings in one day the quality of the tunings would be poor . Might be okay for bragging rights but not for repeat business.

Six or Eight, many years ago..., but all in different homes!

[Edit:] And most in different towns.

18 is my max - college practice rooms. I could've done more, but had to stop to meet for an 8pm dinner.

I started around 7 am and took one 30 minute meal break. Did a couple of stretches/yoga between every piano to keep the body going. I was younger and in better shape.

Keep focused, keep moving - the quality of the tunings kept me working there - that was my first day.

I will say that finishing the remaining 9 the following day was MUCH harder! I just wasn't as focused. I think I took a few days off after that!

Ron Koval

Why do that many anyway?

I did 11. Started at 9 AM. I was a smoker back then. I took 2 - 10 minute smoking breaks in the morning, took an hour lunch, took another 10 minute smoke break in the afternoon and was done with all 11 by 2 PM. I averaged less than 20 minutes a tuning including pitch raising and yes, they did sound good when I was done but, I was exhausted and swore that was the last time and it was....

On the road, 9 was my max many years ago. In one location, about 20 - two of us would have about 12 hours to tune 60 pianos for those armory sales. I usually did a piano every 25 minutes. My buddy, who came to help was about 22 minutes per piano. These were not fine tunings, just good enough so they could demo the piano.

I'd love to see a video of such a tuning. Like a 30's slapstick movie with everything moving fast.

Kees

Why only 17? No appointments in the afternoon?

Gregor

Even in my young-and-dumber days I limited it to 7. I can't remember ever scheduling more than that, and yes, I can do a respectable job in 30 minutes, but the fatigue of running so many value judgments through my finely tuned mental facilities generally rendered the last tuning a little iffy.

In rural areas driving times limit the number of tunings that you can schedule and keep a semblance of sanity.

Now at colleges I limit myself to 7 when I'm doing a general round of tunings. Makes for a good day that's just right where fatigue is concerned. I can comfortably knock out a round of 30 or so tunings in a work week; that's good enough.

In 2006 I tuned in 4 seperate homes from 9 AM -3PM. I was hired to floor tune 13 new pianos at a hotel for a Yamaha dealer seminar. These pianos were to be selected by the various dealers for their showrooms. I arrived at 4 PM. The clavinova guys were still working! They left at 5 PM for dinner. I did one tuning. They returned at 6 PM to do more rehearsing until 7 PM. I was not told of this. I tuned 13 pianos plus action prep on one C-3. I did not use an ETD back then. I worked until 5:30 AM. I took 2 food breaks. I packed my own provisions. I did 45 minute tunings. The tunings only needed to be close, not perfect. My elbow has never been the same.

10. Hated it! For solo & ensemble contest.

I was going to put this on the "What did you do today" thread but it goes better here. My fourth appointment on Friday, after a Baldwin SD-10 (9 foot concert grand), a Yamaha P-22 studio and Baldwin Acrosonic piano, all tuned to A-440, by the way, I drove 45 miles to a concert hall in another city to tune a Steinway D (also 9 foot concert grand) for a concert that night.

It was 12 cents flat across the board, give or take. I decided right away that this would be a three pass tuning, even though many techs, including me in most circumstances would do that in two passes. The RCT "smart tune" guys would do Mrs. Jones' Rudolf Wurlitzer in one fell swoop, lol.

It was a concert tuning for a Brass ensemble. It had to be at pitch and it had to be stable. Unisons would be paramount. The best strategy for me was the three pass idea. I could actually do that in less time than I could with two passes and "fighting" with unisons that would not stay on pitch.

I looked at my watch when I was ready to tune, I wasted no time at all, took no breaks, kept my eye on what I was doing and kept moving. On the third pass, I only had to dwell on a few unisons. When I was done, I looked at my watch and it was 55 minutes later and it was a concert tuning!

I drove back, went to the bank and the grocery store and was home by 5:30, having started at 9 AM, gone to the dealer to collect, got lunch and drove a 90 mile round trip. All pianos tuned that day were solid as a rock and right on pitch.

If a concert grand has 230 strings and I spent 55 minutes which would be 3,300 seconds, it means that I spent an average of 4.78 seconds on each string. During each of the three passes, it meant that I spent and average of only 1.59 seconds on each string. That is the power of the impact technique! Twisting, turning, grunting and groaning each tuning pin would have taken hours longer!

When I was done, I felt like I had been doing an aerobic exercise for about an hour. I was damp with sweat. I felt about the same as I would when getting off a treadmill or rowing machine. I have never felt any pain or discomfort in my palm as many have speculated would happen using that technique. I just pop each string into tune with one or two strokes and move on. Simple as that.

I'll vouch for that! Best traditional lever technique I ever learned. Caused me to start tuning with a new technique after 26 years of doing it the way I had been.

One.

The local MTA held a "monster concert" each year wherein students performed together on 20 pianos. These were mostly Hamilton with a few Yamaha - all pulled out of storage only for this event. I tuned the first piano and then rolled it over the next one, etc.,until all were tuned. They eventually went all digital. Usually I urge clients to never use digital much less buy them. In this case, however, I did not mind. The money was good, but it's too much to do in a day.