Thumpless Rochester

[gordon stelter]

Dear Everyone,
      Looks like I won't be able to make it, as I
simply don't have the thousand bucks. 
( Sigh! ) Too bad, too, as I really wanted to meet
'y'all, play a  lot of Fats Waller on Overs #6 
( with persimmon, of course! ) and give a  REALLY
scary campfire talk about the Evil Chickering Browne
Action, and how to deal with it, should it ever cross
your path.
    Oh well.
    To the 4 or 5 folks who chipped in $20 to help get
me there, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and
will, this coming week, send the Ecsaine samples I
promised. ( Please email me again, so I don't forget
any of you ). And I'll refund the difference. To the
fellow who graciously chipped in $25, the 1890's
Simplex push-up piano player is yours, if you want it,
and I'll notify my brother in Rochester that you'll be
contacting him to possibly pick it up. 
    Sorry, again. I know it would have been a 
wonderful, informative time for me. But I live in an
extremely economically depressed area, where pianos
are just not a  priority for many people, and,
regardless of how I apply myself,  my "bottom line"
reflects this.

    Thanks again!
    Thumpster


--- "pmc033 at earthlink.net" <pmc033 at earthlink.net>
wrote:

> HI, Geoff:
>     You may want to bite the bullet and have a REAL
> evaluation done by a "professional".  You need to
> keep track of your progress, so regular visits are
> recommended over time.  
>     I have a hearing loss which begins at around
> 4000 hz, so any further degradation for me is going
> to be devastating.  I've known about this since I
> was in 8th grade (I'm 55 now), and I've had regular
> checkups over the years.  It hasn't changed much, if
> at all.  Luckily, I can still tune (Thanks, Dr.
> Sanderson!).  Anyway, I also have a problem hearing
> in a crowd, and had a very similar experience
> diagnosing a splinter between two keys.  I just
> couldn't hear it, but eventually the lady pointed it
> out.  
>     At least, get SOME kind of protection, so it
> doesn't get worse.  In my case, no hearing aid is
> going to help much.  I don't know if they would help
> you, but you could check into it.
>     I'm also interested to "hear" about those Zem
> plugs.  I like mine, though.  I use Hearos Musician
> Plugs from Musician'sfriend.com.
> 
>     FWIW, 
>     Paul McCloud
>     San Diego
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: Geoff Sykes 
> To: Pianotech at Ptg. Org
> Sent: 06/10/2006 2:40:41 PM 
> Subject: Follow-up on hearing protection
> 
> 
> Well, my original question about the Zem ear plugs
> never even got addressed, but the thread turned into
> something interesting anyway. Now let's take it a
> step further. 
> 
> I had an experience yesterday that suddenly slammed
> this subject home for me. While prepping a new piano
> at a store the manager claimed to be hearing a
> squeak in two adjacent keys. I could hear a slight
> rubbing, but no squeak. Everyone else in the store,
> (much younger than me btw), could hear it. Just by
> chance a fellow tech walked in. This person is a
> little younger than me but what makes a real
> difference is that this person is female, and it has
> been proven that women have much better hearing then
> men, and keep it longer. She could also hear it
> fine. She also found the problem and fixed it.
> Turned out to be a small piece of wood shaving
> between two of the keys. She blew it out and the
> squeak was gone. 
> 
> So, today I decided to check out just how my ears
> were behaving. Just what COULD I still hear? Surely
> there must be an online resource that could provide
> some clue prior to actually paying to see a doctor.
> Well my friends, there is! A company called Digital
> Recordings offers a free "professional" hearing test
> online. It offers 24 test frequencies from 20 Hz to
> 20KHz with SPL ranging from 0 - 80 db in 1 db steps.
> It requires the Java plug in, some VERY good
> headphones and a VERY quiet room. I could not get it
> to run in IE but on Firefox it ran perfectly. Check
> it out.
> 
>
http://www.digital-recordings.com/hearing-test/www-ht-pro/ht_help_p.html
> 
> Needless to say I was extremely disappointed in my
> results. But, as an excuse, I have old crappy
> headphones, live next to a busy street and there is
> street construction going outside. I plan to find
> some decent headphones and try it again in a quiet
> place, but I don't expect significantly different
> results. (- sigh -) Fortunately the top note on a
> piano, (C8), is only around 4186 Hz. Well below
> where my HF degradation started to kick in. (Whew!)
> Still...
> 
> Enjoy. I expect reports.
> 
> -- Geoff Sykes
> -- Assoc. Los Angeles


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