Hi Chuck, I greatly appreciate your articles --- be they on Schaff's download, or in the Journal so please keep it up. I have not done a keytop replacement in many years but you have incouraged me to do my ship's Knabe keyboard rather than sending it out. I'm sure your personal work suffers from these efforts, but remember that the "Great Piano Gods" will reward you... sometime. Missed you at the big show in Vegas. Carlos Ralon, RPT ----- Original Message ----- From: Chuck Behm To: pianotech at ptg.org Sent: Saturday, July 03, 2010 7:41 PM Subject: [pianotech] Two new articles on Schaff webstore Hello everyone - Just wanted to let everyone know that there are two new articles available for download on the Schaff webstore. One titled "Invisible Ivory Keytop Replacement", and the other "Splicing Broken Grand Hammer Shanks." I would appreciate any feedback, (whether good, bad or indifferent), to be posted on this website. These articles take a lot of time (I logged 27.1 hours on the computer working on the keytop piece, and that's not including the time involved taking photos in the shop), so it would be nice to hear back as to whether they are useful or not. I know that a lot of you on this website are more experienced than myself in a lot of specific, but for those of you who are starting out in the business, I hope you find the material I write helpful. I just sent in a new article, "Upright Pedal Mechanism Transformations," which I hope will be posted within several weeks. We go through an editing process, but once I turn it in the first time, things proceed at a good clip. Thanks to all who have e-mailed me directly concerning my writing for both the Journal and for Schaff. It makes the effort worthwhile to hear back from those of you that are able to make use of what I write. Thanks, all, and have a great 4th of July everyone. Chuck Behm P.S. Concerning all the discussion on hourly rates - I've always charged by the job, never by the hour. The customer knows going in what exactly the bill will be, and once I start a job I simply don't worry about the time. My only concern is the job. I'm sure there are drawbacks, but my customers have never inquired about what my hourly rate is, and obviously there is no concern on the customer's part as to how fast or slow I'm working. Just my 2 cents on the topic. And Marshall - keep your chin up. There's a lot of us who didn't walk into an established family business who had to "gut it out" for a long time before things started looking up. I sure that employment opportunities for visually impaired people are very limited, but I certainly would encourage you to keep your options open, and if you hear of something that you could supplement your income with, consider it. I couldn't have made it on just a tuning income at first - that's why I taught high school English for all of those years. And that's why I expanded into restoration work also, to bring in as much work as I possibly could. Stay positive, and don't get down on yourself. We're all in your corner! Best wishes, Chuck -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100705/e7310954/attachment-0001.htm>
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