apprentice fees

[Kdivad@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 01/28/2000 7:54:05 PM Central Standard Time, 
jonpage@mediaone.net writes:

<< My apprenticeship entailed being paid $2.00 per hour in 1971.
 Minimum wage was $1.60. I was more than happy. Enthralled, Beside myself . . 
.
 
 If you are being charged as a student for lessons, there is no guideline.
 
 I think it should be the other way around. You get paid. $7/hr trainee wages.
 You are still performing labor, tedious at times which does relieve your
 mentor.
 
 But then again, finding someone to take you under their wing is a little
 difficult.
 I know I started looking in the summer of 1971 and found someone in the
 fall of
 that year.
 
 Had I not made that connection, who knows; I could have gotten a really good
 job.
 
 A matter of perspective,
 
 Jon Page
 
 At 09:48 AM 01/28/2000 -0800, you wrote:
 >Can anyone tell me what the typical hourly rate (or a general ballpark
 figure)
 a mentor might charge an apprentice? In my case, my training would take place
 almost exclusively in the shop, helping with action parts, replacing felts,
 shaping hammers, etc., pretty much everything short of tuning, which 
hopefully
 I will be doing on the floor af a piano dealer in the near future.  Thanks.
 >
 >Terry
 >LA, CA
 >
 > >>
Jon and Terry,

     We have a very hard time here in Texas finding anyone interested in 
"apprenticing" with us.  We restore 250 plus pianos each year including new 
soundboards,  refinishing  and every other aspect of piano restorations.  
About half of those are Steinways and the rest run the gamut of piano makes.

  What better environment could one ask for?  In the past 4 years I have only 
been able to find  2  people interested, even at a hourly rate above minimum 
wage. I find that even though they are able to take some of the more mundane 
tasks off of my schedule, the time I spend teaching more than compensates. 

I also find that after giving a little education to someone they have a 
strong tendency to move on and start their own competing business, which may 
be a piano mans natural trait. 

 Perhaps the answer is to start charging people to learn from us.  You know 
"If it won't sell, raise the price.".

David Koelzer
DFW, Texas