Discussion among Peers (was: Lighten Touch)

[Bill Ballard]

At 1:14 AM -0500 8/16/01, jolly roger wrote:
>>You could start with screwing some jiffy weights on the undersides of
>>the keys, and then maybe some clear nail polish on the hammers. If
>>that doesn't work, check with us again.
>>
>>Bill Ballard RPT
>
>Hi Bill,
>            Am I missing some thing? Sluggish and heavy action, where are
>you going to screw these weights? <snip>
>I don't like to see hammers treated with nail polish.  Use the correct
>hardening agents, or just give them a good reshaping. This can also reduce
>touch weight.
>I'm sorry if my response seems harsh, but both practice's are less than
>acceptable in my book.
>Regars Roger

I figured that someone this wet behind the ears and who would 
represent himself to a customer as competent, simply on the basis 
that a piano technicians' internet discussion group would gladly jack 
him up to speed on 48 hours notice, deserves to start on the ground 
floor. What better place on the subject of "sluggish actions" than 
the two principles that mass *can* overcome friction, and dull tone 
*can* make an action feel sluggish. I did of course leave the door 
open ("If that doesn't work, check with us again") in the case that 
he discovered that these are complicated subjects required far more 
experience than can be downloaded on 48 hours notice.

Back about six years ago, Bill Spurlock and I had an off-list 
discussion (back while he was still on the list) about the discretion 
that was required on many of these subjects, given that while through 
the associations engendered by organization sponsoring this list, we 
may have first hand knowledge of many of our fellow list members, 
there are many names whose experience we can size up based only on 
their writings. This doesn't include an unknown pack of lurkers. He 
was nervous about high level discussions among peers where the 
fundamentals were assumed and left unsaid. Our neighborhoods were 
filled with people attempting levels of piano work well above their 
level of experience. "Some of them even have modems," he said.

Another example, off-list. I recently had a visit from a high-school 
classmate whom I hadn't seen in thirty-five years. (We had a jazz 
band together, a major experience for both of us.) He's a wooden 
sign-maker, but because he has always enjoyed music, he's been doing 
a little tuning on the side. So I took him around with me for a day's 
work. That evening, over gin and ginger tea, he mentioned that he was 
on his second pinblock, on a customer's Steinway A II. I asked him, 
pray tell, how did he index the plate/block/rim, and he said he 
didn't. I pulled the discussion over to the side of the road and 
explained to him his legal liability in the matter, and what he 
should do to recreate the original location of the block so that the 
necessary indices could be made. I'm sure I'll be answering a few 
more questions before it's all finished, and I hope that (being 
visible as him advisor) I don't become party to a lawsuit. No, he 
wasn't a lurker on this list, but he could have been. Taking only 
what he could understand and heading of into areas of work requiring 
far more. Meaning well, of course.

This list may brand me as uncharitable, but I am not comfortable with 
this list as the primary learning resource for anybody just getting 
into the business. There are exceptions to this, but I allow these 
exceptions mainly on the intelligence and judiciousness I see in the 
writings of these individuals. Certainly, one formula for experience 
which is tried and true is an inventive amateur (in the word's best 
sense) and a piano which needs fixing. Better still is the student, 
the exercise piano, and a mentor right by their side to, sizing up 
what the student is learning and what he has to earn. Certainly the 
Piano Technicians Guild stands for education, and its "bricks and 
mortar" components (the local chapter meetings, the regional 
conferences and *inter*national institutes) do a very good job of 
this. I owe my career to the teaching of the Guild.

But if there is one formula for experience which I'm not happy with, 
it's the inventive amateur, someone else's piano, and a subscription 
to this list. In regards this list, I'm even less happy with the 
"civilians", the plain piano owners who post asking for the value of 
their old Barkenschnorter Upright, or to estimate the cost of a 
reconditioning/rebuilding/rewhatevering of their piano, sight unseen. 
So call me uncharitable, but after reviewing Mr. Carwithen's posts 
from 5/20/01 on, I'd respectfully suggest that his professional 
advancement would be much better served seeking out the local Guild 
chapter.

End of Rant.

Bill Ballard RPT
NH Chapter, P.T.G.

"There are fifty ways to screw up on this job. If you can think of 
twenty of them, you're a genius......and you aint no genius"
     ...........Mickey Rourke to William Hurt, in "Body Heat", discussing arson.
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