What- no tunafish jokes yet?
sigh
Well, in the meantime, Enterprising Youngpoet has attempted to tune the piano on his own.
It doesn’t sound as bad as it did–“a little out of tune” is still out of tune, of course, but you should have heard the thing before–but I’m stopping his efforts mid-way and will call a piano tuner to come in and do what he can to bring it back into shape.
I’m pretty clueless about it all, but yep, he–my son, I mean–would understand the terms commasense mentioned, and he’d be able to hear them as well, while I’d stand there saying “Huh?”
The boy should consider piano tuning as a career.
Keeve…you’re joshin’ me, right? 
No, I was serious. From your question it was obvious that he’s never tuned a piano before, or else you would already have your answer. So I was wondering what the difference is between him-the-novice and you-the-novice. I thought maybe you are deaf, or you have arthritis, or there’s some other unstated reason why he would be more capable than you,and I was wondering what it would be.
Now I understand that he is familiar with the terms and concepts, and has a better ear for them.
Ah, I gotcha now, Keeve. I wasn’t trying to be a smartass, really…I thought you were playing off the ethical situations you mentioned somehow, which actually would be kind of funny, now that I think about it.
He’s just far more talented than I am–near-perfect pitch, and a good, intuitive grasp of music that I will never, ever have.
It’s kind of scary, actually…he’s only 16, and he absolutely lives music. I’m not quite sure what to do with him sometimes. Thank God he has a really top-notch music teacher.
Thanks for all the advice, Dopers!
The son also has the tremendous advantage of the fearlessness of the young. Us old farts (if the shoe fits…) are too afraid we’ll break something, get hurt, lose money, whatever, but young people just jump in with both feet. And thank goodness that they do, or nothing interesting would ever happen. Sometimes they learn a lesson the hard way, but sometimes they invent something new, or find a new career for themselves, or just luck out.
It sounds as if Youngpoet has avoided all the terrible boogeymen that I and the rest of us were warning about. Congratulations. Did he have the proper tools for the job? I can’t think of an ordinary household tool that would adequately substitute for a piano tuning hammer.
So my greatest concern at this point would be that he could have damaged the tuning pegs if he was using something like a vice grips. This could make it difficult for a pro to tune it in the future.
Assuming he didn’t do that (or even if he did), you should urge him to watch the pro tuner at work, and consider learning more about the workings of pianos through books, Web research, and even apprenticing to a technician, if he’s that interested.
Pianos are such a beautiful mix of science and art that a kid with musical ability and the interest to try to tune one himself may very well enjoy learning more and could find himself a career. Many piano tuners and technicians are talented musicians in their own right who found that working on pianos was more lucrative than playing them. A classic “something to fall back on if the music career doesn’t work out.”
Good luck, and let us know how things turn out. (I really am interested to know what tools he used.)
If he is able to pay attention to rather technical reading, and is interested, I would be happy to mail him my copy of Piano Tuning and the Allied Arts. I am always eager to help someone expand his horizons. It also contains a great deal of music theory which would be applicable to far more than merely pianos.
Please email me directly IF he is interested.
Quoth minor7flat5:
Am I the only one who thinks of something completely different, there?
I guess you could take a chance and let him tune it, as long as you’re fond of ragtime music…
The piano tuna gets paid scale.