THE best RPT in America (rant)

[pianowerks.inc at comcast.net]

Heresy or hear-say....lol

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: "pianolover 88" <pianolover88 at hotmail.com> 

> First of all, to be fair, that is heresy, and "quoted" from your memory. We 
> have no way of knowing if he said any of that in jest, or if you misquoted 
> or even misunderstood what he was conveying. 
> 
> Having said that, Being and RPT may have its merits and benifits, but in no 
> way does it guarantee a better income or anything else other than the 
> satisfaction that you passed the test and can put the logo on your business 
> cards. 
> 
> Terry Peterson 
> 
> 
> 
> ----Original Message Follows---- 
> From: Tom Sivak 
> Reply-To: Pianotech List 
> To: pianotech 
> Subject: THE best RPT in America (rant) 
> Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 06:33:38 -0700 (PDT) 
> 
> 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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