Most tuners work first for firms while developing their skills and sense of precision. Piano factories and conventions for tuners used to be the major training centers, but lately courses have sprouted within many conservatories, tempting some music students away from their original plans. Because so many work as freelancers, it is hard to estimate how many technicians there are in the country, but a spokesman for the Piano Technicians' Guild estimates there are upwards of 15,000. The tuner might be an adventurer sporting a jaunty Greek sailor's cap. But though tuners once had one of the highest median ages of any profession, today's tuner could as easily be a youthful, lively intellectual - male or female - holding, or working toward, a master's degree in a related field. Faced with adjustments or repairs, the pianist is like the motorist in a garage, not knowing whether it's a solenoid or a muffler, but at the mercy of the mechanic.ДЇormerly the stereotyped image of the piano tuner was of an aging, depressive man in a wilted brown suit. But the piano, which is the backbone of the music industry because of its multiple roles in the concert hall, the studio and the home and in all kinds of music, requires an outside specialist for its every need. Even in performance, some musicians sneak little pokes and tweaks. Practically all other instrumentalists do their own tuning. As such, it paid tribute to the technicians who attend at least part of every concert where a piano is featured, hovering over the instrument as a doctor hovers over a moribund patient, checking each key for pitch, weight, response and voicing - the piano's vital signs. X actually made the piano seem out of tune.'' This coup de grace assumed a general understanding that in recital, no piano could possibly be out of tune. He and his wife live on Lane Park Road south of Tavares.Some years ago, a music critic at a debut panned every aspect of the pianist's performance, finishing the poor fellow off with the indictment, ''Mr. His charge for tuning a piano is normally $45. Howard McNeely displays this philosophy at all times. 'If I can make them (the customers) smile then it makes me feel good.' First, 'I keep active because if I don't, I would dry up and blow away.' He urges others to abide by the same counsel.ДЄlso, he remains in good countenance when he is on the job tuning a piano. 'That's my hobby and we travel a lot to attend ham radio meetings in the area.' Many of his calls come from individuals, schools, and churches in Marion and Lake counties, he says.ДЇor a diversion, McNeely is also active as a ham radio operator.

'When school gets going the work gets kind of heavy.' I serviced one church that has 26 pianos and another that has 17. He will travel 'anywhere they have the money' to tune a piano, and he and his wife keep on the move six days a week. I've visited the Baldwin plant and the Kimball plant and know how most pianos are made.' 'I can tell by the feel who made the piano.

His ear was good enough to earn him the assignment to tune a piano for famed concert artist Van Cliburn when he visited Florida. However, he says, 'I usually just use one tuning fork and go from there.' He owns a complete chromatic scale of tuning forks to cover the entire range of notes on a piano. When he's tuning pianos, he uses a tuning hammer, screwdriver, pliers, and whatever tools he may need to get the job done. 'I like the Big Band stuff,' McNeely says, adding that he finally quit the radio business because 'there was too much hard rock.' He 'toured around the country for awhile' in his younger days with bands. He served as a DJ at stations in Jacksonville, Philadelphia, Miami and Daytona Beach. His life has not been slowed, however, and he worked as a radio disc jockey and played piano in dance bands for many years, in addition to keeping his piano-tuning skills sharp. McNeely said he was blinded by a reaction to a medicine when he was 9 months old.

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