<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16711" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Ed Sutton wrote:</FONT></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I would suppose that those lawyers and doctors passed the usual exams to become lawyers and doctors.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Yes, but that doesn't explain the business profs sitting there at $200K.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>A common college situation is this: "Tunings" are contracted at the lowest bid to anyone who claims to be a tuner. He works for cheap in private, and also for schools. When there are problems, the lead prof's piano and recital hall pianos are re-contracted to a competent technician, usually at the going rate for private work. The rest of the pianos are tuned once or twice a semester by the low bid technician, and receive no maintenance or repair.  I'm sure no one is surprised by this story.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Ed, I don't see that scenario all that often.  I am more familiar with competent tuners using the college work as "filler", even if it is at a significantly reduced rate.  I see competent technicians contracting at the lowest bid, expecting lots of referral business, and also so that they can advertise they are the "official such and such college piano technician", or at least use the college as a reference.  That's more what I've seen, though I'm sure what you are describing is not uncommon.  </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>But even at significantly reduced rates (I've seen lower than half the average), a contract tuner can make more per 8 hour day than most salaried techs do, even with benefits figured in.  I did 7 in 7 hours at a small college one day last week. That's more that I usually do in one day comfortably, but at that pace, my tuning rate would have had to have been less than $27/tuning to have matched my university gross salary for a day, or about $35 if you include benefits.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Yes, there are less competent tuners doing college work, but they charge more than that.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Tanner</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>