I will make a few points that some tuners from my past, 1963-1966,
at two different schools gave me in relation to tuning a piano.

Edwin Hofmire, who worked for a piano company after WW1, told me that
pianos were tuned at least 12 times before they left the factory,
whereas most pianos coming from factories in more recent years get
about four tunings before being shipped out to dealers.  It is no wonder
that most dealers have to have their pianos tuned before they sell them,
because they may not know who has a very discriminating ear and they
can save themselves from embarrassment.

Mr. Hofmire tuned pianos at Stetson University in Deland, Florida after
retiring.  They wanted him full-time but he said, "I'm too old to do
that anymore."

The late Paul Laub, of Asheville, tuned a Steinway concert grand at
Mars Hill College some 12 times over a 2 to 3 week period for Bela Nage,
a concert pianist and teacher from the Boston area.  Paul told me after
the concert that Professor Nage told him that was the best tuning job
on a piano he had ever heard in his career.  Paul said to me, "I never
told him how much time I spent on that piano."

I thought these insights from two professional tuners that I knew years
ago would add some interest about tuning pianos.  I was especially
surprised about the latter.

Since then I have heard other interesting stories about tuner-technicians
and one of the most squeamish pianists about having everything exactly
"right" was the late Michaelengeli who had four technicians working on
his piano before a concert in Washington, D.C.

Horowitz had a Steinway technician go with him on his concert tours to
get his piano just right before a concert.  And usually Steinway had a
certain piano that Horowitz had picked out at the factory went on his
tours.

Charles Davis