[CAUT] Position, Assistant, Frost SOM at U. of Miami

Ken Zahringer ZahringerK at missouri.edu
Mon Jul 30 12:27:30 MDT 2007


I wouldn¹t be too quick to foresee a crisis.  The market will continue to
change, certainly, but novices with ETDs won¹t eliminate full-service
technicians any more than places like Jiffy-Lube put full-service auto shops
out of business.  We may see more of a dichotomy between tuners and techs
who do everything else, or the market may respond in some other way
entirely.  The main point is that the piano public, like any other portion
of the public, isn¹t inclined to let themselves suffer.  Don¹t underestimate
their resourcefulness in finding someone they can pay to provide a service
they want.

I think Elwood nailed it.  A private tech with moderate amounts of
motivation and business acumen can make significantly more money working for
less demanding clients.  It takes a different temperament to work in this
setting.  I won¹t speculate on what the differences might be :-)

Regards,
Ken Z.

On 7/30/07 10:34 AM, "A440A at aol.com" <A440A at aol.com> wrote:
> 
> Greetings, 
>     It may be the demographics, but I wonder if there isn't something else
> going on.   Could it be that the majority of those interested in piano work
> have found that with the purchase of an ETD, they can go out an begin making
> money almost instantly?   I have seen several localities in which the
> experienced tech has had their tuning business drastically cut by novices with
> machines.   
>     The loss of the "bread and butter" business has perhaps lessened the
> percentage of piano techs that can do all the maintenance required of pianos.
> This is a dangerous direction, if so. Without the advanced skills, (as in ,
> everything beyond tuning and band-aid patch jobs), the piano public is going
> to suffer.   
> Regards,
> 
> Ed Foote RPT


-- 
Ken Zahringer, RPT
Piano Technician
MU School of Music
297 Fine Arts
882-1202
cell 489-7529

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20070730/33b45e24/attachment.html 


More information about the caut mailing list

This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC