SANTA BARBARA CHAPTER
November Meeting: (2nd Monday)
Date: Monday, November 13, 2017
Time:
7:00 pm
Location: Jim Connolly’s Piano Kitchen
430 Rose Ave., Santa
Barbara
The Santa Barbara Chapter's October meeting was held on Monday, October 9. We agreed on a tentative date for our December Holiday Party of either December 9 or 16, to be finalized at the November meeting. For the Good of the Order, we discussed ways of assessing or managing consignment deals, and the proper use/positioning of lid props.
Our Technical Segment included:
- review of an adjustable keybed support found in a Wurlitzer spinet,
presumably used to counteract keybed sag over time
- a reminder to creatively
assess the customer's complaint, illustrated by a story of a customer
complaining that the piano sounded terrible, only to discover a lamp cord laying
directly on the bass strings
- replacement and general service strategies for
broken agraffes in a very old Steinway
- an informal poll of what marketing
strategies we're all using, sorted by what works and
what doesn't
- ways
to respond when customers cancel at the last minute
For our program, Benjamin Sanchez and Dennis Ashly demonstrated and led discussion on the merits and techniques of impact tuning levers for both vertical and grand pianos. The discussion also included general ergonomics and encouragement to consider our bodies as valuable tools, and the use (or not) of earplugs. It was noted that there are generally lots of lightly used impact levers for sale.
Evan Austin briefly reported on his attendance at the SCRC conference in Austin, TX.
Our next meeting will be on Monday, November 13 at 7:00 pm at the Piano Kitchen in Santa Barbara. Gary Hammond will present a program TBD.