Floyd A. Stevens

[Les Smith]

On Sun, 30 Nov 1997 Billbrpt@aol.com wrote:
>      A few weeks ago, there were a nember of people who were taking quite
> some delight in trashing the reputation of Dr. Stevens and certain of the
> techniques described in this book.  While I noted that the book was basically
> obsolete, I did not see any value in what was being said about it in such a
> negative manner.

Actually, if you go back and check the origin of the thread on Dr.
Stevens, it had nothing whatsoever to do with his book. One of the techs
on this list received a solicitation from the good Dr. that said that if
he would submit $65.00 plus a TAPE RECORDING of a piano he had tuned, he
would receive in exchange from the doctor a certificate proclaiming the
technician a "master tuner". I believe the tech who received the solici-
tation as Barrie Heaton. Barrie wrote to the list, inquiring about who
the "Dr." was and expressing concerns about a technical certification by
mail approach. As well he might. Such a "diploma mill" for tuners is
HIGHLY suspect and, in effect, demeans the efforts of pioneers like
John Travis who did so much to establish verifiable standards of com-
petence and ethics aamong members of the craft. In my opinion a person
can rant and rave all he wants to about how it would be unfair to the
poor doctor to openly criticize his master tuner certification program
by mail, but I said that I thought it stinks back then and I am still
of that opinion now. The next step would be to have a tech regulate and
voice a grand action and then send the Dr. a couple of still photographs
of the completed action--PLUS the appropriate fee, of course--and receive
back a certificate proclaiming them a "master tone-regulator".
 
By promoting such a scheme, the Dr. doesn't need anyone to "trash"  his
reputation, he does it to himself. However, if you'd like to argue in
favor of a technical-certification-of-tuners-and-technicians-by-mail
program, feel free to do so.

Les Smith
lessmith@buffnet.net