Do you know this Man ???????

[Les Smith]

On Fri, 24 Oct 1997, A440A wrote:

> Barrie wrote:
>  
> >I just wondered if anyone in the U.S. knows of this guy.  
> 
>     I have met him, and seen his work. 
> Regards, 
> Ed Foote
> Precision Piano Works
> Nashville, Tn

Boy, Ed, talk about a cryptic endorsement! Actually, many years ago he
wrote an over-priced book on piano tuning and servicing which apparently
I'm am the only one who ever read, because I have never heard ANYONE ever
refer to it, even in passing. I remember that he carried his tuning tools
in a small leather "doctor's" bag, although from your description of his
"tuning institute" it sounds like maybe he's switched from operating on
pianos to operating on people's wallets. I mean, come on, guys, send in
a recording of one of your tunings and sixty-five bucks and get a plaque
certifying that you're a "master tuner"? Sounds like you could just send
in the sixty-five bucks, forget the recording and still get the plaque,
doesn't it? HELL, I'LL SEND YOU A PLAQUE FOR ONLY TWENTY-FIVE! 
It reminds me of a mail-order tuning course that was offered years ago
that promised to teach you how to "tune a piano over night". The course
consisted of a phonograph record of every note on the keyboard and the
"tuner" was advised to match the pitch of the strings on the piano with
those on the record. I actually once knew a tuner for a public school
who used this method. Unisons were tuned one string at a time to the
pitch on the record, BUT NEVER WITH EACH OTHER and no checks between
notes, not even octaves, were ever used. 88 notes, 200+ strings were all
tuned individually to the record. Further, no one ever pointed out that
as the speed of individual ponographs would vary even slightly, so would
the frequencies of the notes sounded on the record. The ads for this tun-
ing course used to appear on the inside of the covers of books of matches,
along with other such winners as "Learn Meat-Cutting at home!" They advis-
ed that you'd "Amaze Others with You're New-Found Ability To Make Money
Tuning Pianos". I was amazed all right--that anyone would be gullible
enough to fall for that line of Bologna--but then, maybe that all tied in
with learning meat-cutting at home, huh? :)

Anyway, at the risk of offending any of "Dr." Stevens friends and col-
leagues who may be on this list, I'll simply point out that as Will Rogers
once said, sometimes P.H.D. stands for "piled higher and deeper". I guess
this means that I'm not as cryptic as my highly respected colleague, Ed,
huh?  

Les Smith
lessmith@buffnet.net