Agreed. I’ve known some great techs, some were members, some were not. I’ve known George “Frank” Emerson for a long time, lives not too far from me. He has helped me a lot over the years and helped me through the RPT process. He’s been an RPT for a long time and I’ve learned much from him. There’s a different RPT that I know of too and he’s the total opposite. I won’t go into the details but over the past twenty years I’ve come up behind his work many times where he had told the customer he did this and that and charged them heavily for it but I could tell the work was never done. These extremes exist outside the Guild also of course but I’ve found that there fewer instances of this with members of the Guild. For me, if you’ve decided to put yourself through the RPT process you’ve shown a commitment to the trade and have made it a goal to be the best tech you can be. When I trained with Yamaha about half the techs there were members. They were all competent techs. I think being a member also comes with some accountability. I told Bill Davis, who was the SERVP at the time, that I think if the Guild has a Code of Ethics then people need to be able to complain to the PTG when they had a less than stellar experience with a member. For a long time you couldn’t, you can now. I applaud you on your years of dedication and service. Being a piano tech leaves you in a kind of gray zone. There’s no requirement to be an RPT, there’s no licensing you technically have to have to work in the field but I believe that over time the bad ones will fade some with bad reviews and bad customer experiences, it’s just a shame that anyone has to deal with the bad ones. That’s why at the top of my list is word of mouth. That way if someone does good work, regardless of their Guild affiliation, they’ll stay busy. The customers happiness is the goal, however that is achieved.

Thanks, I appreciate it! If you run into something you need help with let me know.

Thank you for watching! Whenever it's hard to check with anyone local for a recommendation I typically suggest the ptg.org option of finding a tech.

@@MrPianoTech Thank you. Do you have any recommendation of important questions to ask in the phone interview. Is it important that they have experience with the brand of piano for example? Thank you. I'm grateful to have found your channel. I'm happy to learn more about the technical side of taking care of a piano. My best to you.

@@papillonpapillon3761 I would just make sure they have some good experience. I wouldn't say being an RPT is a requirement but personally I feel that RPT's tend to be professional and knowledgeable (there are exceptions). If you can find any reviews on them or references that's always helpful. Brand doesn't matter, most pianos are the same on the inside. Thank you for watching and let me know if you have any more questions.

@@MrPianoTech Thank you so much. I will do that. The music department at our local college might provide some references as there really isn't any reviews anywhere. I appreciate your answers and will continue watching. Thank you!

@@papillonpapillon3761 👍 they should be a good resource. Thanks again!

Thanks!

Check out www.PTG.org

@@MrPianoTech Thank you. I meant to type excellent restoration, BTW. Very reassuring seeing such quality work... I live in the UK, plus I'm 60 so unlikely to get access to training for any of the disciplines in piano restoration/maintenance. This is a great shame, as I really feel drawn towards the work. Thank you again and very best wishes to you and your business.

I thought the same thing about 15 years ago when I was getting into this professionally so I also learned how to repair digital pianos and keyboards. I gave that up a number of years ago because it wasn't worth the time anymore. I got so busy with acoustic pianos I didn't have time to work on digitals especially with the small margin of profit you make on those types of repairs. I can tell you I work full-time and stay booked a couple months out year-round also with restoration jobs coming in regularly, but I've also worked really hard on building my reputation and building my business.I also train other technicians from time to time so I'd say it's definitely a healthy trade. More than people would think.

@@MrPianoTech Well it's easy to see you stand behind your trade so that's why I asked you. I'll most likely just look to learn tuning at first because I live in NYC so I dont have the funds to open up my own shop. Thank you so much and Happy Holidays. Look forward to more of your videos!!

@@bartenderzzz You're welcome! Let me know if I can sometime be of any help.

I think the top 3% of piano techs. Tune 20 or so pianos a week. Not all. Some tune 15 some 2 a day = 10 a week So do the math. A guesstimate is $150. Per. Give or take. So 10 a week is $1500.00 After you have enough experience. Say a few years you probably could tune one piano in 2 hours. A lot of time that would include driving time. I think the average area is around 5-20 miles for a piano tech.

I think it may have been more of that sort of "good ol' boys club" more in the past but personally I haven't really encountered that, although I'm not super active within the Guild. I wish there were things they did differently but in the end I decided to remain a member a few years back (after dropping my membership years before that) and use their resources as much as I could to help further my skills and business. To me, the PTG is the best and perhaps the only really, group out there that has good solid tests to take and is widely know in the industry. What I heard from A LOT of older techs was "I couldn't pass those exams now". So I decided that if I wanted to be the best tech I could be that I did want that RPT designation and that it was definitely more of a personal thing to me, to prove to myself that I could do it. So all in all to ME it is a benefit to being a member, but again there are great techs who aren't members and crappy ones that are. Thanks for watching!

@@MrPianoTech thank you for your thoughtful and thorough reply. My mind isn’t entirely made up, and your words encourage me to not give up hope on the PTG. (Perhaps now would be a good time to prepare the exams before I get too much older.) I’ll sit down with my lead tech at the Gallery and pick his brain a bit on the subject as well. Thanks again sir, and very well done on your videos!

@@RJ9mech Anytime!

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