Piano Training & Gluing Hammers w/Titebond

[Michael Magness]

On the subject of Technical Training, I will reiterate what I've said
before, The amount of training necessary depends on how good your
contacts/prospects are for finding work once trained. I took an extension
course offered by The University of Minnesota-Minneapolis housed in The
MacPhail School of Music. We learned tuning, basic regulation, and repairs
and restrung a Steinway grand in class. I left there with no store to do
work for completely on my own except for a mentor always willing to answer
any question. He assured me when I asked my first question that there were
no dumb questions just dumb answers, letting me know I was always free to
ask him anything without fear of ridicule. I didn't TOUCH another Steinway
for almost 20 years and then it was a verticle, the grands came after
another 5. Much of what I learned was by comparison, if I had some keys
malfunctioning I compared their function to those that weren't and analized
the difference. If I still couldn't figure out the problem I returned to my
mentor and talked it over with him, I lost money in those early days by not
charging the customer for my gaps in knowledge. However I still have many of
those same customers today. I came to the Guild late about 10 years ago,
then had to drop out for a few years to care for my Mother and rejoined
about 5 or 6 years ago.
If you will be working in close proximity with a skilled tech who is willing
to answer your questions, rudimentary raining is all you need, the
repititiveness of many of the tasks is training enough.  I flike me you will
jumping into a business of your own and need to make a living ASAP get all
the training you can, you'll need it. Buy the books, go to the seminars,
take the PTG classes, follow a pro around for a month or two.

On the issue of hanging hammers with Titebond and my post from last night, I
was referring to a field repair in which I didn't have time to go home and
get my gluepot come back and wait the appropriate amount of time for the
glue to properly set. The artist(George Winston) likes to come in at 1 or 2
AM to rehearse on the piano and critique the tuning and any other "problems"
he finds. I did have enough time for the Titebond to set before then.

I have hung hammers with hot hide glue until the last year or so. I then
discovered the trim and moulding glue that Titebond makes. It has a faster
cure time, it's "open" time is only about 8 minutes but like titebond if you
find you have some crooked or twisted hammers the next day it will release
with a heat gun and re-adhere when it cools.
-- 
Michael Magness
Magness Piano Service
608-786-4404
www.IFixPianos.com <http://www.ifixpianos.com/>
email mike at ifixpianos.com


-- 
Michael Magness
Magness Piano Service
608-786-4404
www.IFixPianos.com <http://www.ifixpianos.com/>
email mike at ifixpianos.com
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