The Valley Technician

Income and employment for musical instrument repairers

mstivers1201 — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 20:00:32 +0000

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June meeting

mstivers1201 — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 13:38:37 +0000

Dale Fox’s house

7101 34th Street,

North Highlands CA 95660

Business meeting will begin at 7:00 PM, and the technical program will start at 7:30. Be sure to reply with an RSVP for a proper dinner count.

Please make every effort to attend this meeting, as the June Meeting is our annual Election of Officers. John Leggett has agreed to serve as Chapter President, and Terry Miller has agreed to continue on as Secretary/Treasurer. Due to family considerations, Gene Nelson will not be able to serve as Vice-President next year, so we need someone to “step up” and fill in this important role.

Also, John Leggett as agreed to serve as our representative to Council at the upcoming national convention, so we will need to discuss reimbursement for his expenses.

Gene has prepared an interesting technical program for June, entitled:

GETTING YOUR FIBER

The ability to “read” wood = knowing best how to select wood for a specific application and knowing the nature of grain well enough to work a piece of wood or timber in a manner appropriate to its individual characteristics. (I will not spend much time on selection and application)

QUESTION

You are hewing the surface of a long, straight log with an adze – the most basic milling tool there is – and an experienced woodworker observes you and points out that you are hewing in the wrong direction. Which direction is that? (Hold answer for later)

CAN YOU TELL

Looking at the face of a board, which is outside and which is pith side?

Which end was top or bottom in the tree?

Which direction to plane a particular surface?

If a particular timber is suited to the intended use?

SEE YOU THERE!!

May meeting

mstivers1201 — Fri, 06 May 2011 01:26:13 +0000

Sorry for the bit of the late notice, but the May Meeting of the Sacramento Valley Chapter of the Piano Technicians Guild will be held

Tuesday, May 10th

7:00 PM

At The Music Exchange

On Arden Way

Larry Messerly, our Western Regional Vice President, will be on hand to update us on all things PTG, and he will also be presenting his technical program on the Acrylikey system.

Business meeting starts at 7:00 PM, Technical Program at 7:30.

Be sure to RSVP to Dan via email or phone (916) 224-0122 for dinner head count.

See you there!!!

April meeting

mstivers1201 — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 05:26:49 +0000

The April Meeting of the Sacramento Valley Chapter of the Piano Technicians will take place next Tuesday, April 12, at the Music Exchange on Arden Way.

The Business Meeting will begin promptly at 7:00 PM.

John Leggett has prepared a technical program on the use of the Tunelab System, along with some other thoughts on tuning. We’re looking forward to John’s contributions.

REMINDER: the June meeting will feature election of officers for next year. Dan will be ending his reign of terror (stepping down) as President, so we’ll need a few candidates for that position. Gene Nelson will be running for re-election as Vice-President, and we’re waiting for Terry Miller to hold a press conference announcing his intentions shortly.

Please call Dan (916) 224-0122, or email me with your RSVP for a decent head count for dinner. Due to a scheduling conflict, Boss Brett and the Backchecks will not be performing Tuesday night. In their place we’ve scheduled Stevie Stokes and his Swinging String Coilers.

See you next Tuesday!

March meeting

mstivers1201 — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 15:50:46 +0000

The March 8, 2011 meeting of the Sacramento Valley Chapter of the PTG will be held at:

The Music Exchange on Arden Way in Sacramento

The business meeting will start at 6:30pm followed by the technical session. The technical will be presented by Jim Johnson. Jim will demonstrate and discuss his aural pitch raising technique on an upright piano – and he will use his impact hammer. Everyone is invited to bring their electronic tuning devices so that you can track what Jim is doing and discuss the electronic aspects of pitch raising as compared to aural. Please RSVP Dan Dannenfelser so that he can plan for food and drink. It might be better to call him as his email is in need of help these days. 916-452-3913

February meeting

mstivers1201 — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 15:27:04 +0000

The February Meeting of the Sacramento Valley PTG Chapter will be held
Tuesday, February 8th 7:00 PM

Dale Fox’s Shop
7101 34th Street
North Highlands CA

Business Meeting will begin promptly at 7:00 PM

Technical Program will begin at 7:30 PM

Tonight’s Technical:

REGULATING THE NEW YORK STEINWAY SOSTENUTO
By Gene Nelson

I got a call to tune a New York SSB for a Christmas time performance. The pianist had specifically requested that the middle pedal be in perfect working order (I never did find out what that meant). It is not very often that I get a request like this. (She must be playing something from one of those odd French composers I thought.)

Normally on any concert prep job I would check the function of the sostenuto but decided this time it would be a good idea to come prepared to do a full regulation if needed. The sostenuto on this piano only needed some minor fine regulation but I was ready for whatever condition it was in.
I will review the tests, regulation procedures and jigs that I use for this work and we will have a model L to observe.

Pizza will be served, so please email Dan for a headcount (or, if you forget to RSVP, you’re free to forlornly watch as those who RSVP’d munch on pizza).

Gene will be continuing the PACE Tuning Lessons from 6:00 PM to 6:45 PM. Be sure to RSVP to Gene and let him know if you’ll be attending this tuning session.

SEE YOU THERE!!!

November meeting

mstivers1201 — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 03:50:54 +0000

The November meeting of the Sacramento Valley PTG Chapter will be held next
TUESDAY NOVEMBER 9th at PIANODISC

The business will begin at 7:00 PM, followed by our technical program. Jerry Reiersen, Michael Zarate, and Mark Burgett (or some combination thereof) will present a program on general service issues regarding PianoDisc systems, and a brief overview of some of their new products.

Please be present and ready to go by 7:00 PM, as there is much material to cover in this presentation. Dinner (probably the usual pizza) will be served. So that we can get a proper head count for dinner, please RSVP via email by Monday, November 8th.

September meeting

mstivers1201 — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:50:56 +0000

The September meeting of the Sacramento Valley PTG Chapter will be held Tuesday, September 14th at

Dale Fox’s place:
7101 34th Street
North Highlands, CA

Pizza and brief business meeting from 7:00–7:30

Technical : 7:30 to 8:30 or 9:00

Tonight’s technical: Our own Tremaine Parsons will present a program on re-scaling the small Yamaha grand piano, and he promises to have one or two other goodies for us.

Please RSVP at dpshans@aol.com so we can get an accurate count for the pizza.

See you there!

Dan

We have a LinkedIn group!

mstivers1201 — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 23:37:03 +0000

If you are already on LinkedIn, go to the LinkedIn site and join!

August meeting

mstivers1201 — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:23:31 +0000

The August meeting of the Sacramento Valley Chapter of PTG will be held at a special date and time:

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

6:30 PM

at PianoDisc

PianoDisc has graciously offered to provide dinner for tonight’s meeting, so please be prompt, and please reply via email or by calling (916) 224-0122 with your RSVP, so that we can get an accurate head count.

In place of a technician program, The August meeting will be a general discussion of the current state of our chapter, and hopefully the development of some positive directions for the future of our chapter. We have recently seen a decline in meeting attendance, which we would like to address. Possible solutions would include scheduling meetings on a less-than-monthly basis. Another would involve using chapter funds to provide dinner at each meeting, thus allowing members to get to the meeting on a more timely basis. We always welcome ideas for new technical programs, and anyone desiring to present their own technical program is absolutely welcomed to bring their idea forward.

The idea of developing a scheduled training program for new members seems to be simmering on a back burner. We should take a look at what type of program we may wish to develop (such as the PACE Series), and how many members would want to take advantage of such a program.

If anyone has some good ideas, feedback, criticism, or other comments, please feel free to email or call and discuss them prior to the meeting, to help develop an agenda of possible ideas.

Thanks, and mark your calendars!!!!