Beatings

[Bill Maxim]

List -

Ironic that Ms. Harper's gracious reply in response to all your
gracious help came in ahead of the beat - sort of like syncopated
music.  And the followup beat:

>You hit
>her kinda hard

I know how she must have felt, because I was recently clobbered on
another mail list.  Being new to that list, I made a statement
which turned out to be BOTH wrong (I thought I was knowledgeable)
AND on a subject that had just been covered in a thread they had
just finished.  The respondent did not know I had just joined, and
let me have it.

In the time I have been on this list, I have sensed you all
policing the tone of the exchanges.  I applaud the attention given
to avoid demeaning comments, such as to use the term, "tooner" even
in jest.

By the way, my wife scolds me whenever she hears me refer to myself
as a "tuner" rather than "technician;" and I think she's right.  It
sounds better.  When asked what I do for a living, I state that I
am in business for myself, tuning and repairing pianos.

It's not the idea of creating an elitist impression.  I never
correct anyone who refers to me as "the piano man" or whatever.
Having cut my teeth on old uprights in New England at a time when
paying over $25 for one was too much unless it was a Steinway, I
probably take on repairs in situations that many of you would frown
on.   It has to meet these criteria:  1) It seems practical for the
client; 2) it will help me support my family; 3) experience has
shown that the kind of job proposed on the kind of instrument at
hand will help build my business in the long term; and 4) if
cost-cutting repairs are to be used on an upgradable instrument,
there will be no harm done that is difficult or impossible to
reverse.  (And many of the old junkers I have used the tuning fork
on in the past have been finally been dealt with by the pitch fork,
i.e. replaced by new pianos that are a joy to tune.)

Referring to another thread, the last appointment today, far from a
junker, was a 15-year-old Baldwin SD that called for a half-hour of
playing to settle all the unisons and savor the sound!





Bill Maxim, RPT