<div style="color: black; "> <div id="AOLMsgPart_0_50eb6355-817a-4ba5-ab9b-e4a762c7e96f" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><pre><tt>Paul writes: </tt></pre><pre><tt>>>But, if one wants to be an expert in any field, one has to learn it from the beginning. If you don't learn the basics, you can't call yourself an expert. If you don't care to be an expert, that's up to you. But you'll never be known as one.<<</tt></pre><pre>Greetings, </pre><pre> Sadly, I must disagree. Expert is just too good a description to pass up for most of us, and the term is so overused as to border on trite, these days.</pre><pre> I have seen quacks masquerading as experts for the entire time I have been in the trade. I have seen</pre><pre>them written up in glowing, "oh the old art kept alive" pieces by people that were NOT educated about the piano. Human interest </pre><pre>pieces that take pictures of beautiful,old uprights that just glow; never mind the totally shot pinning, bass strings, and actions inside that the </pre><pre>writer has no idea about.</pre><pre> The buying public can't really grasp why we get wrapped up in the minute differences between tuning approaches, but they can yearn for the "old" </pre><pre>restored piece of an earlier era, representing an expert's turning back the clock. That would be nice, however, this field of work is littered</pre><pre> with con men, ( I haven't met a female tech,yet, that wasn't dedicated to serious piano work), passing themselves off as experts.  There are fewer of these types in the </pre><pre>RPT ranks, but they are there, too. </pre><pre> I tuned aurally only for many years, and I understand it. I have used a SAT for some years now, and I understand it. I think I can hit my target </pre><pre>with either, but I haven't seen a  completely top flight tuning done by anyone with undeveloped aural skills. I know they might be out there, I just haven't seen them. </pre><pre>Regards, </pre><pre>Ed Foote RPT</pre><pre>http://www.piano-tuners.org/edfoote/index.html </pre><pre><tt> </tt></pre> </div>  </div>