piano service in music colleges

[David Forman]

> Date:          Wed, 01 Jan 1997 09:22:15 -0800
> From:          Warren Fisher <fish@communique.net>
> Subject:       Re: piano service in music colleges
> To:            pianotech@byu.edu
> Cc:            ptg-l@prairienet.org
> Reply-to:      pianotech@byu.edu

>
>
> David Forman wrote:
> >
> > I am a piano technician at a music college with 150 pianos. Presently
> > I am employed only 20 hours a week. I am trying to find out how many
> > hours most colleges hire their technicians for when there are this
> > many pianos to be serviced. Working this limited amount of hours with
> > so many pianos certainly does not allow these instruments to be
> > properly serviced. Knowing how other colleges deal with this will
> > help us set up a better piano service program. Thank you in advance
> > for your help.
> >
> > David Forman
>
> David, do I understand correctly, that you are paid for work hours and
> are not on a piece-work contract (so much for tuning, and so much hourly
> for repairs)?  First you need to ask around the staff and find out what
> amount of money the school will disburse for anything without going into
> "bid mode".  The schools I work for will spend around $100-$200 per
> piano (without even blinking) for additional work on 4-5 pianos per
> semester and up to $300 for special cases.  The next thing I would do is
> evaluate each piano needing re-conditioning, and put them in order of
> importance to the staff, and how much needs to be done. Now pick the one
> most worthy of help and spend 5-6 hours a week working on it and do
> tunings the rest of the week.  You won't have to do more than one for
> the right staff member for most colleges to see the light.  Also collect
> information about the cost of new pianos like the one you're planning to
> work on.  This will make many administators realize they can spend
> considerably more to keep the pianos they already have in good shape!
>
> Good Hunting!
>
> Warren
> --
> Warren D. Fisher
> fish@communique.net
> Registered Piano Technician
> Piano Technicians Guild
> New Orleans Chapter 701
>
> Warren,
Thank you for your reply. I am employed  as a half-time employee(20
hours per week). My pay includes tuning and all repairs, regulation,
voicing, etc- there is no extra pay for any work other than tuning.
What I am trying to find out is if most colleges with  this many
pianos has a full-time technician on staff, and if so(which I'm
fairly sure is the case), try to convince my school that they need to
bring the time I work there up to the standard that most school are
at now. The students here are not satisfied with the condition of
many of the pianos-neither am I-but there is not enough time to keep
all these pianos in tune. Any other work is a luxury. I regulate and
voice when I have time, but not nearly enough of this is done. Again,
I welcome any and all responses to this problem.
Dave