> I'm preparing to ask my administrators for some student help and >would like to find out what other institutions are using. If we could get >some good numbers it might do us all some good in acquiring more body's in >our shops! You can email me directly and I will compile the data and post >it to the list. > > What is the total student help hours for piano work at your >institution? I have 4 to 6 students helping in the shop. They each work from 10 to 20 hours per week. Some are work-study - this is a bargain for they come from financial aid and you pay only 30% of their wage. I try to get music students,but engineers, etc. make good workers. > > How many pianos do you service? We have 250 piano in the School. I also tune some outside work at the museum, hospital etc.. This funding I use to give myself and students a few perqs such as transport to PTG seminars. > How many technicians? > > Do you contract any tuning work? No outside contracting of tuning. I have a schedule that you can look at on my web page (made by a engineering student) which gives our pianos a schedule which I follow throughout the year. Each summer the students clean, regulate, and I tune and voice most of the faculty, rehearsal, & concert pianos. Web page address: http://uwpianos.music.wisc.edu/ > > Do you contract any rebuilding work? We haven't been doing much rebuilding. We do hammers, action parts, maybe bass strings etc. Some touch-up but no refinishing Best of luck. I highly recommend using students. It's not for everyone and may not work for every school. I've been without a second technician for 15 years, so I had to have extra help. This is a solution for us. You will to become an administrator. You will become a teacher. Budgets, scheduling, meetings, etc. as well as tech work. I enjoy the break from constant tuning and repair work, and passing on the skills to our students. If you have someone you don't understand, they go away in 9 months and you start over. I say" go for it" ! > >John Minor >Piano Technician >University of Illinois >jminor@uiuc.edu Joel A. Jones Univeristy of Wisconsin Madison, WI
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