Journal contents

[Greg Newell]

Since we're on the topic, how about some ideas for articles we'd like to 
see? Perhaps something in the vein of reports on ancillary industries to 
our own. Just what goes into making a plate? What is the actual process 
used to put "plating" on those now dull parts? How is the felt made to be 
different colors without losing the lanolin within? I'm thinking of sort of 
a roving reporter type thing. Information that we all might not have an 
immediate need for, but some basic knowledge of just might help in ways we 
never expected. How about the tips we got from others who have been in 
different industries prior to this one. The re- annealing brass tips we got 
on this list were pretty helpful. How about the tip for hardening the capo 
bar? How hot did it need to get again? Something about the color the metal 
turns before you stop, right? The list could go on for quite a while. I try 
to remember when reading the journal that we on this list may have read 
some of the material before but not everyone who gets the Journal is also 
on this list. Just think of what they've missed!!!

my 2 cents,

Greg Newell


At 12:59 PM 6/6/2002, you wrote:
>At 07:44 AM 6/6/2002 -0400, Clyde wrote:
>>but if I were asked
>>to write an article for the Journal I would think long and hard before
>>saying yes.  It would appear like a mountain to me.
>
>
>It appeared like a mountain to me, but luckily after writing to pianotech
>for a few months, I realized that scaling mountains was within my
>reach. Steve Brady was an angel, asking me to write for the Journal.
>Still, the only way I could do it was to think to myself, "what do
>I know enough about that I can talk about it for 4,000 tuners and
>feel any likelihood of being right?" I ended up with some very
>strange topics, things like making bench covers and the uses of ginger
>tea, because they were what I had actually done. Steve was very
>excited when I sent him about a dozen of these weird ideas -- "a lot
>of this stuff has never been in the Journal before!"
>
>If one applies this "have I done it, and am I sure of my facts?"
>litmus test to topics (not to mention, "is it useful?" and "has
>it been in the Journal over and over already?"), the number of
>people who are available to write sadly lessens. Then one must
>consider that many people are not born writers, and that some
>of the most knowledgeable are also the busiest. We're lucky to
>end up with 10 or 15 good writers, let alone 400!
>
>The kind of articles which we all (I believe) crave, the ones
>full of practical everyday ways of doing things which we didn't
>know how to do before, can only be written by people with a
>knack for discovery and improvisation. My two-glue trick is an
>example. It's my best discovery. I would love to come up with
>a couple of dozen other neat things which no one else has noticed
>or used before, but it's not all that easy to do, especially if
>one applies the "first, do no harm" test to it. One must consider
>what all the readers will make of a technique, and what damage might
>result if they jump to erroneous conclusions.
>
>Personally, I love the articles I've been seeing in the Journal,
>and I know they don't grow on trees, just waiting to be picked
>by the bushel. Like a television station, a magazine is an endless
>gaping maw, with an unending hunger for material.
>
>Not that I mind Clair bringing up the matter. Maybe we can find
>some other information-mines, and maybe talking about the Journal
>will bring forward a few more people ready to write. If someone
>has something which they really want to say, but has trouble
>with the mechanics of writing, I'm a pretty decent pre-copy-editor,
>and am willing to offer my observations by email.
>
>Susan

Greg Newell
mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net