<HTML><HEAD></HEAD>
<BODY style="BORDER-TOP-STYLE: none; BORDER-RIGHT-STYLE: none; BORDER-LEFT-STYLE: none; WORD-WRAP: break-word; BORDER-BOTTOM-STYLE: none; khtml-nbsp-mode: space; khtml-line-break: after-white-space"><BR>A fellow in the SF Chapter of the guild, Jerry Raz, came from the same field...<BR><BR>David Ilvedson, RPT<BR>Pacifica, California<BR><BR><BR><BR>
<DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 3px solid; PADDING-TOP: 5px">
<HR>
Original message<BR>From: "Stephen Hill" <JETTMEK@COMCAST.NET><BR>To: pianotech@ptg.org<BR>Received: 6/3/2006 4:30:07 PM<BR>Subject: <BR><BR>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 56px; TEXT-INDENT: -56px" align=left><B>From: </B>Stephen Hill <<A href="mailto:weltuned@comcast.net">weltuned@comcast.net</A>></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 50px; TEXT-INDENT: -50px"><B>Date: </B>June 3, 2006 4:51:57 PM MDT</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 31px; TEXT-INDENT: -31px"><B>To: </B><A href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 76px; TEXT-INDENT: -76px"><B>Subject: my new career</B></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 12px Helvetica; TEXT-INDENT: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">Hello List,</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 14px"><BR class=khtml-block-placeholder></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">Just introducing myself. Technician in training. Gave up 20 year career as</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">an airline mechanic, to tune and repair pianos. Sound crazy? Really, the two</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">are much closer than one may realize. Jet engines require a certain amount</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">of anal retentiveness as does a competent RPT. Pianos are essentially machines,</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">just made out of different materials, and produce music instead of thrust. So, I've</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">come full circle now, from a piano performance major in college, through a career</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">in aviation, and now back to a music related career. Couldn't be happier. I've</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">always been interested in how pianos work, since a little boy, and have a wonderful</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">1923 S&S M as my primary practice piano.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 14px"><BR class=khtml-block-placeholder></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">Potter is my school of choice, and besides the Steinway, I have a Baldwin L, and a</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">M&H 50 that I regularly keep in shape. Have yet to tune for pay, but that will come.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">In the meantime, study, study, and study some more, and practice with that tuning</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">hammer. I had a fear of replacing a broken string, so I overcame that by restringing</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">my Steinway. No more fear! Was interesting job, and I also rescaled it to factory</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">specs. It only had 6 wire sizes! Supposed to be 12. End result is spectacular, and the</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">thing never sounded so good. (well, probably did when new, but I wasn't around then)</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">Hopefully, I'll meet some of you someday.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 14px"><BR class=khtml-block-placeholder></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">Regards, Steve</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 14px"><BR class=khtml-block-placeholder></SPAN></FONT></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>