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THE MUSIC TRADE! REVIEW
any of the thousand and one little odd jobs that
come in his way, he often gives more trouble
than he is worth, besides all which he cannot
Some Comments by a London Contemporary
claim to be a fully qualified professional man.
Regarding Conditions in the Repairing and
I say nothing of or to the hundreds of utterly
Tuning Fields Which Are Not Without a
untrained, incompetent tramps who, armed with
Parallel in This Country.
an eighteenpenny German tuning hammer, a
Reference has been made from time to time screwdriver, and to them a wholly useless and
in the Technical Department of The Review to needless tuning fork, go from house to house
the lamentable conditions which prevail in the seeking whom or what they may devour. There
domain of tuning and repairing, owing to so is no royal road to competency in this profes-
many incompetent men seeking and securing the sion, and the only right and proper road is that
repairing of valuable instruments, particularly through some properly equipped factory where
in country places; thus, through the damage the processes of manufacture may be seen in
progress from start to finish, and studied at
caused to pianos, the reputation of thousands of
able tuners, who are an honor to their profes- every stage; where the actual construction may
sion and to the industry, is tarnished. Some be watched, and the why and wherefore of all
remarks on this subject which recently appeared things connected therewith may be readiry
in the London Musical Opinion on pianoforte learned should the worker so desire.
"At the same time there must be many who,
tuning and regulating are pertinent in this con-
nection and prove that conditions in the two though good tuners, have not had the opportuni-
ties of gaining first hand the practical knowledge
countries vary but little. We read:
"Complaint has been made, frequently and and experience without which, as has already
justly, that the professional education of the been pointed out, no real tuner's education can
average tuner is incomplete and very unsatis- be said to be complete; and it is with a view of
factory, and that his usefulness is consequently helping such that these brief hints have been
greatly limited. There are many causes and compiled, with reference to such regulating and
repairs as may fairly come within an ordinary
reasons for the present state of things—some of
them within the tuner's own control, others not. experience. In the manufacture of modern
The present system of specializing which obtains pianos—having secured strength and solidity in
in pianoforte factories tends to make the tuner the construction of the back, bracings, wrest
a tuner and nothing else. He is apprenticed to plank and frame, and having also secured re-
tuning and no more—and even that he must sponse and sonority by proper construction and
pick up for himself as best he can; while as for adjustment of soundboard and bridges—the pre-
anything that he may learn outside his par- vailing feature thenceforward is regularity,
ticular department, he must be indebted to his which means perfect equality. To secure this
own keenness of observation and some mechani- regularity we must be able to regulate.
"Regularity begins at what is known as the
cal instinct. Speaking generally, the young
tuner gets no definite assistance or encourage- scale of the piano itself, which scale is a design
ment from his employers. Upon the other hand, or template indicating the exact position of
his opportunities may be of the very best and wrest pins, bridge and bridge pins, the arrange-
widest, but he himself may be content to let ment and spacing of which must be made with
them slip through his fingers and so remain perfect exactness and regularity, and to corre-
spond with the action to be supplied later on.
simply a tuner.
Regularity
is demanded of the stringer that the
"Such a man is useless as an outdoor hand,
as many dealers have found through sad and bit- number of coils round each pin in each par-
ter experience. He may be a decent tuner, but ticular row shall be the same, and that the
if he cannot mend, and that properly, a broken lengths of steel from top bridge to pin shall lie
hammer shank, or replace a vellum hinge, or do upon the same horizontal plane. The action
maker must adhere strictly to the standard of
regularity laid down in the scale, that his ham-
mer butts shall correspond with the string
spaces, his stickers to the butts and his levers to
the stickers. The hammer coverer must provide
a graduated regularity throughout his heads and
their covering, while the keymaker, again, must
so arrange his keys as to correspond exactly
with the action levers and come into line with
the stickers, butts, hammers and strings. Thus
we see that regularity is the keynote, as it were,
of the whole working construction, and upon
these lines we must proceed to regulate."
TUNING AND REPAIRING PIANOS.
n industry wh
instruments form
as compar
where admission
circle of leaders is guarded with
jealous care and is only obtained
by the consent of trade experts,
recognition as an artistic instru-
ment is naturally accorded to but
few.
In this small class of selected
and approved leaders the Haines
Bros. Piano has a high place.
Why not write for catalogue ?
HAINES BROS.
Bacon BlocK, OAKLAND, CAL.
92 Fifth Ave.
NEW YOBK
Republic Bldtf.
CHICAGO
Col. Treacy reported the reopening of those
plants that had been closed for various periods
in the towns visited by him and as a result the
local conditions immediately brightened up. His
is decidedly the stand of the optimist and his
enthusiasm is contagious.
A large portion of Col. Treacy's enthusiasm is
lavished upon the Davenport & Treacy player-
piano built upon the "four unit" plan. We learn
from recent literature that the Davenport &
Treacy player action is of most substantial con-
struction and is guaranteed to last as long as
the piano in which it is placed and a feature that
strongly appeals to the prospect is that the parts
are interchangeable, it being possible to replace
a certain part of one action with the correspond-
ing part from another of the same make. The
rule at the factory is that quality must never be
sacrificed for speed and every part of the Daven-
port & Treacy player piano must be correct re-
gardless of the time consumed in producing it.
That these instruments possess features that find
favor with dealers all over the country is proven
by the fact that there is always a liberal supply
of orders on hand at the factory.
C. H. LOOMIS ON EUROPEAN TOUR.
C. H. Loomis, the New Haven, Conn., piano
dealer, and one of the globe trotters of the piano
trade, left recently upon an extended trip through
the Mediterranean, during which he will make
a tour of Italy. Mr. Loomis will return to
America late in March.
THE MASON & HAMLIN ORGAN USED.
The Mason & Hamlin Co. are rather proud of
the fact that one of their Liszt organs, installed
in the New York home of the Vanderbilts re-
cently, furnished a large part of the music for
the wedding ceremony when Miss Gladys Van-
derbilt was married to Count Szechenyi last
week.
^
Lawrence Kirby, at one time Sherman, Clay &
Co.'s representative in Fresno, Cal., has taken
over the stock of J. A. Neu who handled the
Kohler & Chase lines in that city, and will very
likely continue to act as representative for the
latter company.
Horace W. Phillips has announced his early
retirement from the piano business in Worcester,
Mass.
"DISTINCTIVELY HIGH GRADE"
BUSINESS ON UP GRADE.
Says Col. Daniel F. Treacy Who Talks After
a Careful Survey of the Field—Is Most
Optimistic Over the Outlook.
In discussing general business in various sec-
tions of the country as they came under his per-
sonal observation, Col. Daniel F. Treacy said re-
cently that business on the whole has shown
a marked improvement over the closing months
of 1907 and the most noticeable improvement is
in the matter of collections for with money easier
dealers are making special inducements favor-
able to both themselves and their customers, for
the early closing of accounts. According to the
majority of dealers, while in number of sales the
month just passed was somewhat behind Janu-
ary of previous years yet in actual business the
results were far more satisfactory owing to the
number of high grade instruments purchased and
the many cash sales made. Then, too, many dealers
have demanded larger first payments and instal-
ments and have profited greatly thereby, as those
sales which were lost through the demand for
larger payments would very likely have resulted
in repossessions anyway, which prove highly im-
probable in any case.
\
Wie CHRISTMAN
STUDIO GRAND
is the greatest success of the day.
It possesses a scale of rare even
ness, a tone of remarkable sonority
and richness, with a quality that
is highly orchestral. Our latest
Btyles of Grands and Uprights
mark a decided advance in the art
of piano-making. We court inves-
tigation. Some territory still open.
CHRISTNAN SONS, Manufacturer,
FACTORT AND OFFICE:
WAREROOM8"
•69-S73 Lmmt I37tti St.
rcw
35 W«jt 14th St.
YOR.K