Discussion among Peers (was: Lighten Touch)

[Joe & Penny Goss]

Bill,
While I fully agree with the tenor of your post,
what you do not know is that Ed's closest PTG chapter is about 450 miles
from his home.
To Ed's credit he is asking the right questions, and attending Reno helped
for him to answer a few.

There is on this list great minds and masters of piano technology to the
most humble neophyte. Hopefully we all can learn from each other.
Only a fool would attempt a pin block installation with only the faint
instructions given here on the list as the total insite as how to procede.
And yet I am sure there are those on and off this list who could, can ,and
have replaced or done other things without the great wisdom of someone
guiding their every step.
As for me, even when shown how, I have to be whopped up side of de head
every now and again caus I forget.
We are all different ! Viva la difference!
Joe Goss
imatunr@srvinet.com
www.mothergoosetools.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Ballard" <yardbird@pop.vermontel.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2001 6:28 AM
Subject: Discussion among Peers (was: Lighten Touch)


> 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.
> +++++++++++++++++++++
>
>
>