<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN"> <html><head><style type="text/css"></style><title>Re: [CAUT] Requirements for contributing/posting</title></head><body> <div>Dear Kendall,</div> <div> </div> <div>Greetings and welcome to the CAUT list!  I am delighted that learn that you have pursued a career in both piano technology and as a professional pianist.  This has been the path chosen by several of our graduates, and another piano student approached me this week about learning piano technology.</div> <div> </div> <div>I will write you soon to catch up on news from the UT Butler School of Music, which has changed a bit over the past 26 years, although many of the piano faculty that you knew are still here, in various states of functionality...</div> <div> </div> <div>Best regards,</div> <div>Charles</div> <blockquote type="cite" cite>Dear Chris:</blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>(Sigh.)</blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>Must I join your club, and jump through all the hoops (RPT requalification), and become a bona fide CAUT, (and stay away from purely technical discussions!) in order to have anything of value to contribute?</blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>Or can I by this point be considered to have achieved some degree of stature in the technical and musical communities, in spite of the apparent absence of such prima facie endorsements?  (i.e. - haven't I done enough already?)</blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>(On the CAUT info page it says that CAUT is a "community service", and also that it is an "open list, allowing anyone to subscribe or submit posts." Did I somehow misunderstand?)</blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>Can't I just be a guest for now?</blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>(It's okay, if my contributions are not pleasing or wanted I can go somewhere else... ...sniff... ;-)  )</blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>~Kendall Ross Bean</blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>PianoFinders</blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite><a href="http://www.pianofinders.com/">www.pianofinders.com</a></blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>e-mail: <a href="mailto:kenbean@pianofinders.com">kenbean@pianofinders.com</a></blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>Connecting Pianos and People</blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>"The reward for jumping through hoops is... ...more hoops".</blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite> <hr></blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>From: Chris Solliday [mailto:csolliday@rcn.com] Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2008 4:26 AM To: College and University Technicians Subject: Re: [CAUT] Tuning Pin Questions - About me... Since you asked... </blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>Thank you Kendall,</blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>Well now that we know how dangerous you are (and that you have such illustrious beginnings, Charles Ball is one of the best and brightest) let me recommend that you bite the bullet on the history (I'm not sure that the bookkeeper forgot to send in the dues is a legitimate excuse according to our bylaws & regulations) and rejoin PTG and take the modern tests and become an active RPT. We need intelligent and multi-talented folks like yourself in the organization. I think you will find this to your advantage in the marketplace as we make further enroads marketing the RPT.</blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>BTW are you contracted or employed by a College or University? While we encourage discussions of all types (and yours has been most interesting) on the CAUT list, purely technical discussions are probably best directed to the piano tech list.</blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>Chris Solliday RPT</blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>Lehigh University</blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>Lafayette College</blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>East Stroudsburg University <blockquote>----- Original Message -----</blockquote> <blockquote>From: <a href="mailto:kenbean@pacbell.net">Kendall Ross Bean</a></blockquote> <blockquote>To: <a href="mailto:caut@ptg.org">'College and University Technicians'</a></blockquote> <blockquote>Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2008 7:09 AM</blockquote> <blockquote>Subject: Re: [CAUT] Tuning Pin Questions - About me... Since you asked...</blockquote> <blockquote> </blockquote> <blockquote>Chris~</blockquote> <blockquote> </blockquote> <blockquote>Thanks for the compliment. Did you mean smart guy or wise guy?!! I guess I put up a good front! Here's a little of the truth about me:</blockquote> <blockquote> </blockquote> <blockquote>Long story about PTG membership, but the gist of it is I joined back around 1986 and passed the tests, and became a Registered Craftsman member or RPT or RTT, (whatever they were calling it back then.)</blockquote> <blockquote> </blockquote> <blockquote>I was a member for several years (Golden Gate California Chapter -Sid Stone) but somehow at some point the paying of the dues got delegated to the bookkeeper for our PianoFinders business, and unfortunately she didn't understand the importance of paying the membership dues by the deadline. As a result, my membership got dropped. We appealed, but at the time they didn't accept our excuse. I just never got around to retaking the tests, or rejoining, (and I was a bit peeved at their lack of sympathy for the situation, I admit. I'm not going to mention any names...)</blockquote> <blockquote> </blockquote> <blockquote>Currently Karen (my wife and partner in the business) has the membership (she's an associate member) so that's how we are still associated with PTG and how I still receive the PTJ. I really do enjoy reading the articles in the Journal. I also especially enjoy reading the posts on the CAUT and pianotech listserves, and how others solve the problems they encounter with pianos and customers. Recently I felt a bit guilty about receiving all this wonderful advice and knowledge and not giving anything back, so I decided to start posting and at least pool my ignorance with the wisdom of others. ;-)  </blockquote> <blockquote> </blockquote> <blockquote>Our business, PianoFinders, we started in 1982, when we returned here to California from school at UT Austin in Texas (I was a piano performance major there working on my Masters and Doctoral degrees. I knew Charles Ball there, he was one of the folks who inspired me to get started in piano technology...)  ...By 1989 or 1990 we had a fairly large rebuilding shop, several employees, a piano showroom, concert hall, advice hotline, and learning center in Concord, California. (Mostly learning center - We were the ones doing most of the learning!) (By the way, I also happen to be a concert pianist, on the side...)</blockquote> <blockquote> </blockquote> <blockquote>Around 1996 we closed the huge facility in order to have a life and spend more time with our kids, who were in their teens and needed us more. We decided to go virtual and network and now we have a web presence at <a href="http://www.pianofinders.com">www.pianofinders.com</a> . I still have a fair sized rebuilding shop (attached to our home), with lots of nice power toys -oops, I mean power tools, to play with, and we network with a number of different rebuilding shops and technicians throughout the country. We have gotten pianos in from, and shipped them out to, places all over the U.S. (and sometimes various places in the world.)</blockquote> <blockquote> </blockquote> <blockquote>I enjoy working on Steinways, Baldwins, Mason & Hamlins, Chickerings, Yamahas, and Kawais, but also on Lesters, Conovers, Steinerts, Wurlitzers, A.B.Chases, and (Chicago) Kimballs. (-mostly grands, with a smattering of uprights.) I think they are all interesting, in one way or another. I think a lot of the joy I find in my work is seeing how all the different pianos were built, and trying to restore them to the way they were originally (a challenge, when often they have been substantially modified or altered by various people over time.) Every piano is like an archeological dig for me - many layers. (I'm into history!) One of the major aspects of our business is appraising pianos. We have evolved an appraisal process over the 25 or so years we have been in business that we are quite pleased with, or, at least, we think it is something to write home about! I enjoy going out to people's homes and talking to them about their pianos, and telling them about their pianos, (and often playing their pianos after I appraise, tune, or service them.) I've seen just about everything (or so I think, until the next appraisal or tuning.)</blockquote> <blockquote> </blockquote> <blockquote>Well, there it is in a nutshell. By the way, I'm still not that old either (54 this year.) I don't really know about smart --  I just know enough to be dangerous!</blockquote> <blockquote> </blockquote> <blockquote>Thanks for asking,  (I realize this is probably a lot more than you asked for... ...sorry...)</blockquote> <blockquote> </blockquote> <blockquote>~Kendall Ross Bean</blockquote> <blockquote> </blockquote> <blockquote>PianoFinders</blockquote> <blockquote><a href="http://www.pianofinders.com/">www.pianofinders.com</a></blockquote> <blockquote>e-mail: <a href="mailto:kenbean@pianofinders.com">kenbean@pianofinders.com</a></blockquote> <blockquote> </blockquote> <blockquote>Connecting Pianos and People</blockquote> <blockquote> </blockquote> <blockquote> <hr></blockquote> <blockquote>From: Chris Solliday [mailto:csolliday@rcn.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 5:42 PM To: College and University Technicians Subject: Re: [CAUT] Tuning Pin Questions - The truth about reverse thread;and Steinway parts that "glow in the dark." </blockquote> <blockquote>Hi Kendall,</blockquote> <blockquote>You seem like a smart guy, are you a PTG member yet?</blockquote> <blockquote>Chris Solliday RPT <blockquote> </blockquote> <blockquote> </blockquote> </blockquote> </blockquote> <div> </div> <div> </div> <x-sigsep><pre>-- </pre></x-sigsep> <div>Charles Ball, RPT Head Piano Technician The Butler School of Music The University of Texas at Austin 512-471-0763 mailto:ckball@mail.utexas.edu</div> </body> </html>