Bill, I completely agree with your last post. In a message dated 98-05-22 14:10:50 EDT, you write: << To sit back and criticize tha majority of RPT's saying you won't stoop to their level and call yourself "independant" won't create any changes beyond what a single person is able to do. >> What I look for in someone who insists on a certain way of doing things is, can he clearly state his reasons for doing it his particular way and without a superior attitude show how it is better, and instruct others in its use. This is the attitude I picked up right away in the conference class Jim Bryant conducted a year and a half ago in Charlotte. I can name a number of others on this list who breathe the same humility in their posts. The general level of competency will be helped more by those who encourage than by those who intimidate. I have my hobby horses, too, but I try not to ride them in public. Like careless spelling, for example. Yes, you may hold my high horse while I dismount. (I make typos, too.) I have no right to criticize others or discount others' views just because they don't have the spell checker between their ears, that I have cultivated over the years. I agree with Ralph Waldo Emerson that "every man I meet is my superior in some way. In that, I learn of him." The tuner who semi-apprenticed me in the 1950's -- I was a music student at a college he served -- was a traditionalist and a stickler for what he determined to be "accuracy." He would not hear of stretching octaves (although William Braid White claimed all good tuners did it and could demonstrate it with the Conn Chromatic Stroboscope). I learned to tune them as dead on as possible. Then one day I had the opportunity to experiment with a Strobotuner and observed that when the fundamental was dead on, the other partials were moving sharp. It became clear to me that tuning dead on was actually stretching. In that and in a number of other things, I have changed my ideas to conform to the facts. I am still dedicated to accuracy. In fact, when I purchase an Accutuner III later this year after tuning all these years aurally, it will be at least in part to help me with accuracy. Some mention was made a few posts back about using materials original to the piano. I agree. So I will not innovate and use carpet thread to replace frayed bridles. I refuse to use to use shoestrings for the same purpose. (I saw a lot of carpet thread and shoestrings when I was new at the trade). But where do I find bridles with leather tips? They were original to most of the pianos I replace them on. Drat these innovations! Vinyl tips! My use of the letters "RPT" does not make me better or worse than an anyone else. I earned my reputation before I joined the guild, and doubt that more than 0.01% of those on my customer list are aware of the designation or what it means. I joined the Guild in part because I felt like a cheapskate, repeatedly borrowing the Journal from a member, and in part because the young fellow I taught 25 years ago kept relaying to me all the information he was picking up from knowledgeable people at conventions, etc. Why not drink at the fountainhead of knowledge and be an encouraging participant in passing on the knowledge to others? Bill Maxim, RPT Simpsonville, SC
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