New Tuner

[Andrew & Rebeca Anderson]

Hi Tim,
I 'graduated' a couple of years ago from this course.  My first piece of 
advice is to locate the nearest active chapter of the Piano Technician's 
Guild and join as an associate.  This course is weak on tuning skills, they 
tell you about it but you don't actually interact with anyone and they 
don't actually grade your tunings (no recordings at the time I took the 
course).  That is where the guild can really help.  Your local chapter can 
have technicals on tuning and there are regional meetings that will have 
very good courses.

If you are a self-starter, the course will point you in the right 
direction.  I ended up getting the Peterson 490ST they recommend (and have 
regretted the choice, Peterson is stone-age tech compared to what is 
available now).  I then volunteered to tune at schools and churches for a 
while until I was confident with the consistency of my tuning quality, then 
I started charging.  Tune your own piano first until you are comfortable 
you won't be the reason why the strings broke.

If you want to get an E.lectronic T.uning D.evice, ETD, get something like 
the Verituner VT100 or Tunelab Pro (for palm computer/laptop).  Remember 
that computers generally have short service lives and purpose made devices 
generally are intended to last longer.  I got an ETD because there was no 
PTG chapter closer than four hours driving across snowy mountain passes.  I 
needed something to grade myself.  The Peterson was OK for setting the 
temperament in larger pianos (where stretching doesn't reach into the 
temperament octave) but its stretch profiles only fit a few very good 
pianos, I learned to mix and match a lot and of-course augment manually as 
I went and corrected aurally.  You waste too much time with this ETD.

The course is basically a guided study where you practically self-grade 
what you do.  You just have to get out there and actually start doing 
it.  This list is a good source of expert advice and you local chapter will 
really be a great social and learning resource.

Good luck,
Andrew

At 04:24 PM 3/4/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I am just getting into the trade. I have been studying at home with the
>American School of Piano tuning and have completed four of the ten
>lessons in the course. I would appreciate any advice from anyone familiar
>with this course on how to get started and what additional tools supplies
>I might want to get soon.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Tim
>_______________________________________________
>pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives