COMING EVENTS
APRIL – The April meeting will be held Thursday, April 20 at 8:30 AM at the home of David and Barbara Bonham, 10717 Eastlake Circle, Oklahoma City. The technical will be presented by David and will be on problem solving with grand piano actions. The focus will be on translating symptoms (or customers’ complaints) into diagnoses and improving our skills in addressing them. Come with questions you may have on problems you’ve encountered. Need directions? Call 721-0566.
MAY – The May meeting will be held Thursday, May 18 at 8:30 AM. The location and topic will be announced later.
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Here is a good one which is true:
My good friend Jim Geiger was at a lady’s house tuning a piano when she asked him, “Would you mind if my 6-year old son watches you tune? He’s retarded, and I think that he would be good at this.
D. Keith Morgan, RPT
Oklahoma City, OK
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TECH TIP – WHAT TO DO WITH CAPO BAR STRING SIZZLE?
(FROM PIANOTECH LIST)
It doesn’t require additional stuff and you can tell instantly whether it is effective or not. Using a string hook, capture the offending wire between the capo bar and the string rest and give the tool a twist - just enough to create a barely discernible kink in the wire. This will often change the resonant period of that section of wire, and will also slightly change the string’s approach angle on the lateral plane. I think I have obviated about 60% of the sizzles with string rates in this section by using this technique. If the string breaks, you may be twisting too hard.
Ed Foote, RPT
Submitted by Keith McGavern, RPT
Shawnee, OK
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LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT:
If you were looking for a regular care family physician, how would you begin? I would guess that most of us would either talk to someone in the medical field, a friend, or someone that we know that could give us a good reference. I doubt if many of us would shop for the cheapest price, or pick a name at random from the telephone book. After all, our health is certainly an important investment, to say the least.
It is probably fair to say, that, an experienced, knowledgeable and thorough doctor would be our choice. But what about “bedside manner”? No one wants to feel that they are just another cash cow in the examining room, or worse yet, being treated by a rude doctor who thinks he/she is God.
So, what does all of this have to do with our work as Piano Technicians? I believe that the process for most people looking for a Piano Technician is similar to the process of looking for a doctor. Although their piano may not be as important as their health, our “keybedside manner” is just as important. We need to show our customers that we care about our work, and that we want to give their piano the best care possible. They should feel confident in our abilities and be at ease with us personally. We not only have to do professional quality work, but we have to sell ourselves as well. A large part of building any business is customer relations. If the customers like you, they’ll have you back. If they don’t like you, they won’t. It’s just that simple. Our attitude and appearance play just as important a role as the work that we do.
Bob Scheer, RPT
Edmond, OK
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FUN KNEE?!?!?!
A nice, calm and respectable lady went into the pharmacy, walked right up to the pharmacist, looked straight into his eyes, and said, “I would like to buy some cyanide."
The pharmacist asked, “Why in the world do you need cyanide?”
The lady replied, “I need it to poison my husband.”
The pharmacist’s eyes got big and he exclaimed, “Lord have mercy! I can’t give you cyanide to kill your husband? That’s against the law! I’ll lose my license! They’ll throw both of us in jail! All kinds of bad things will happen. Absolutely not! You CANNOT have any cyanide!”
The lady reached into her purse and pulled out a picture of her husband in bed with the pharmacist’s wife.
The pharmacist looked at the picture and replied, “Well now, that’s different. You didn’t tell me you had a prescription.”
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2006 ANNUAL PTG CONVENTION- ROCHESTER, NY – JUNE 21-25, 2006
Hands-on-Skills Sessions
Just a quick note about the upcoming Rochester Institute June 21-25, 2006. By now you have received the program booklet and have seen numerous advertisements and articles about the Institute and other Convention activities.
The decision of whether or not to spend the time and money attending the Convention can be difficult. I have gone through the process many times. For me it has always come down to one issue: “What’s in it for me?” Will attending make me a better technician, facilitate my career ambitions, and improve the health of my bank account? If I am able to answer in the affirmative to these questions, I go. If not, I don’t.
I encourage you to do the same. The institute web area is now up and running and includes, among other things, a searchable database. I urge you to spend some time searching the different categories and skill levels of the classes offered. I am confident, no matter where you are in your career, you will find not only classes you have never seen before, but which will offer an affirmative answer to my questions above.
I look forward to seeing you in Rochester.
Rick Florence, RPT
Institute Director
REGISTER BEFORE MAY 31 TO GET THE EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT.
Call (913) 432-9975 to register or register online at HYPERLINK
http://www.ptg.org/conv/reg" http://www.ptg.org/conv/reg.
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ABOUT TO LOSE EVERYTHING?
“I’m about to lose everything!” We hear that a lot in this day and age. So what exactly is everything? What most people mean by everything is material possessions. Losing material things can be traumatic, but it’s not really everything. As George Carlin, the comedian would say, “It’s just stuff.” This lifetime and the stuff in it is NOT everything. It is something, but it sure is not everything. How we live, what we look forward to, what we focus on, what we long for and what we lament over is largely determined by what we view as everything and what we view as the biggest and most important thing. Make sure that your everything is not “things”, and often when you do that…”everything” is all right.
Take a few moments during this Holy Week to reflect on the greatest gift man has ever received. God gave His Son 2,000 years ago to die on the cross. It is up to each of us to determine if we will accept the gift of God’s Son into our lives. Whoever accepts the Son gets everything…and more.
May each of you have “everything” that you desire and may God richly bless you and your families during this holiest season of the year. Happy Easter.
Barbara Bonham, Editor
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President – Bob Scheer
Vice President – David Bonham
Secretary – Nathan Sobel
Treasurer – Gary Bruce
Newsletter Editor – Barbara Bonham
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“All expression of opinion and all statements of supposed fact are published on the authority of the author as listed and are not to be regarded as expressing the view of this chapter or the Piano Technicians Guild, Inc. unless such statements or opinions have been adopted by the chapter or the Piano Technicians Guild, Inc.”