Real-Life Decision Making
You're a piano repair technician. One day, a music store manager calls
you to ask if you will look at a brand new piano that was sold to a customer
three months ago.
The store manager tells you that the customer, Joe Harrison, isn't happy
with the piano, that it has "strange sounds" coming out of it.
"'Strange sounds' can mean anything from an out-of-tune piano to objects
like metal, brass or glass vibrating in the room in sympathy to the piano
being played," says Paul Brown, a registered piano technician.
Before going to Mr. Harrison's home, you check the store's records and
discover that another piano technician has made at least five service calls
to try and fix the problem. The other tuner couldn't find any problem with
the piano, so the manager has now called you to see what can be done.
When you reach Mr. Harrison's home, he tells you that the piano doesn't
sound like it did in the store and he is very unhappy with it.
"This is a very typical response," observes Brown. "A store is usually
quite large. Also, in a home setting, there is almost complete silence, and
the slightest difference in sound can be heard."
Mr. Harrison says that the metal wires are "chiming." This is an expression
you've never heard before. But customers are always making up unusual words
to describe the simple vibrations of the wires, and you understand what he
means.
After checking out the piano, you tell Mr. Harrison that in your opinion,
the piano isn't perfectly in tune. So, you spend the next two hours tuning
the piano. Some of the wires have what are called "false beats" in them, so
you utilize several procedures for minimizing them.
"A false beat can best be described by a singer doing a 'slight vibrato'
instead of a constant, monotone sound. More expensive pianos have almost no
'false beats,' but virtually every piano ever made has them, to some extent,"
says Brown. "It really is impossible to remove all of them."
After tuning the instrument and doing a little work on the false beats,
you play the piano. To you, it sounds typical of that particular brand.
Mr. Harrison sits down and plays some of the keys and says, "There! Listen
to that! Do you hear that chiming?"
You reply that you hear about six different types of sound, and it's completely
normal to your ears. He contends that the piano didn't sound like that in
the store, and it is still completely unacceptable to him.
What do you do?