THE best RPT in America (rant)

[piannaman at aol.com]

Rant justified, IMHO.  I don't even wanna know who this guy is.  How does he keep ANY clients at all?
 

Dave Stahl
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Sivak <tvaktvak at sbcglobal.net>
To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 06:33:38 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: THE best RPT in America (rant)


List
 
What do you think about an RPT whom I met recently?  Below are some of his comments that I found...interesting.
 
1.  Only one or two clients per month can "appreciate" the really fine tuning he is capable of, so he feels that "as long as the unisons and octaves are close" that's good enough for the rest of them.
 
2.  Informed me that he never bothered to learn how to splice a string.  His scores on the other areas of the RPT Technical Exam were high enough that he passed without even attempting it.
 
3.  Told me that his hearing is "too good".  "I actually hear coincidental partials!  When I use a M3/M10 test on an octave, I actually hear the coincidental partials beating!"  (WOW!  Imagine that!  Now there's a set of ears!)
 
4.  Told me he covets the job of tuning for his local symphony orchestra, and regarding the guy who has the gig, "I can't figure out how he got the position. I've heard his work.  I do a much better job."  
 
5.  Hired to tune pianos in a warehouse (with me and 4 other tuners), he tuned two pianos in 7 hours.  (I tuned 6.)  He then asked me, "How do you do it so fast?"  So the next day, I chose to tune a piano behind him so I could watch him in action to see if I could give him some tips on tuning faster.  I watched him as he used both hands to place the tuning lever on each pin, left hand on the tip, right hand on the handle.  Then...he'd detune the string by at least a half step to a minor third, before pulling it back up to pitch.  He did this on pitch raises as well as the final pass.  I commented, "You could improve your speed if you used just one hand to move the tuning lever from one pin to the next."  He replied, "I don't want to scratch the plate.  That's why I use both hands." (Am I super-coordinated or something, that I am able to move the tuning lever from one pin to the next without scratching the plate? Or is this just another Associate-related bad habit?  I couldn't even think of a way to comment on his detuning of each string without insulting him.)
 
6.  Claimed that Virgil Smith told him that he tuned as well as Virgil himself and that he could teach him nothing.  (Except perhaps the one thing Virgil should have taught him: to do the best he can on every piano, whether he thinks the client can "appreciate" it, or not.)
 
7.  Wore a tie (with the RPT logo on the tie tac) every day to the warehouse while the rest of us wore Tshirts and shorts.  (OK, at this point, every little thing about this guy bugged me...my apologies to all you logo-bearing-tie-tac-wearing RPTs out there.)
 
8.  Claimed he won an award from his chapter for passing his RPT exam quicker than anyone EVER had in the past.  (Less than 4 years...and...NO STRINGS WERE SPLICED during the production of this RPT!)
 
What a piece of work this guy was!
 
Sorry for that.  I do feel better, though, sharing that with someone.  Anyone.
 
This is not a rant against RPTs in general.  I may be one myself, one day. Call me old-fashioned, but I plan to splice a string at my Tech Exam, plan to continue to do the best tuning I can on every spinet I come across, will continue to not cast aspersions on the work of others in my field, and will never drop Virgil's name in an effort to validate myself.
 
Tom Sivak
Associate Member Chicago Chapter
 
 
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