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Next Meeting — November 2020

Tuesday, November 10, 2020 7:00 PM
Online (Zoom)

NOTE: This meeting is scheduled to avoid Election Day, Tuesday, November 3, 2020.

Please contact the Secretary for the Meeting ID and Password.

Business

  • December Holiday Potluck?
  • January State Seminar?

Technical

Fixed Rate vs Hourly Rate Billing — Tony Smith, RPT

Tony will talk about the difference between Fixed Rate vs Hourly Rate Billing for in-home and dealer work and will also talk a bit about Travel Rates for long-distance work.

Piano Technicians

Previous Meeting — October 2020

Tuesday, October 6, 2020 7:00 PM
Online (Zoom)

Business

Matthew Brown, RPT, called the meeting to order at 7:02 PM. A quorum was present.

  • We discussed some options for future Zoom Meetings to avoid the 40 minute time limit of the free version. PTG Home office may have a pro subscription we can use; otherwise, we'll purchase an annual subscription of our own.
  • We voted to keep Annual Chapter Dues at $40.00.
  • We discussed options for a December Holiday Potluck and agreed it should be outside somewhere like a park with bathroom facilities. For example, Tony Smith recommended Pioneer Community Park as one option. But, due to COVID-19 crowd restrictions (10 or less), we're not sure exactly what we'll be able to do in December. Chad Mitchell is going to send out a message asking for ideas and recommendations, then we can revisit this subject at the November Meeting to make a final decision.

Technical

Experiment with Twisting Bass Strings and B-72 — Aaron Sandner, RPT

Aaron Sandner, RPT and his friend, Jason, are rebuilding a 1914 Mason & Hamlin D Upright piano and are troubleshooting some issues with dead or thuddy bass strings. They experimented with PARALOID™ B-72 thermoplastic acrylic resin to dope some of the bass hammers. They demonstrated the tone changes for several test notes and explained the application procedures they used. They hadn't yet twisted any of the bass strings. Matt Brown suggested it could be a bridge issue. Aaron said it could also may be a down-bearing issue.

Aaron then talked about key clicking noises he was finding in some Kawai Uprights. He found this Mason & Hamlin had the same issue. It turned out to be the backrail felt under the backs of the keys. He used some thin nameboard felt over the backrail felt to demonstrate that it cleared up the noises.

Aaron and Jason talked a bit about making custom parts that are difficult to find. Jason is skilled at doing so.

There was also much discussion about advanced hammer voicing techniques.

This meeting will be available to view for 30 days. Please contact the Secretary for a link to the unlisted YouTube video.

Future Meetings

  • 2020

  • November — TBA
  • December — Holiday Dinner/Potluck

  • 2021

  • January — State Seminar
  • February — TBA
  • March — TBA
  • April — TBA
  • May — TBA
  • June — TBA
  • July — TBA
  • August — TBA
  • September — TBA
  • October — TBA

Officers

  • President — Matthew Brown
  • Vice President — Tony Smith
  • Secretary — Chad Mitchell
  • Treasurer — Wendell Smock