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The Music Trade Review
SEPTEMBER 3, 1927
23
The Technical and Supply Department—(Continued from page 21)
Association at Chicago last June, which was
held at the same time as the convention of
the merchants and the manufacturers. The
minutes of the convention, containing the paper
and the following discussion, are now going
out to members, and I have no doubt that
A. K. Gutsohn, the president, will be glad to
send copies to any reader who will take the
trouble to write and ask for them; at least
so far as he shall have any to spare. Mr.
Gutsohn's address is 638 West Fifty-second
street, New York.
In my "Modern Piano Tuning" the subject
lias been thoroughly treated also, and in my
forthcoming new volume the matter will be
taken up again.
Something to Think About
The mention just now of the National Piano
Technicians' Association brings to mind some-
thing which calls for thought and discussion,
although what I shall say here represents so
far only my personal opinion.
It is my opinion, then, that the next con-
vention of the National Piano Technicians'
Association should be held in Cleveland at the
same time and in the same place with the
convention of the National Association of
Piano Tuners. The proposal may seem
radical, but there are many excellent reasons
to be adduced in favor of it, as I shall show.
In the first place the technicians and the
tuners are the only purely technical bodies in
the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce.
In almost every way their interests are
separated from the interests of the merchants
and manufacturers, so far, that is, as these
are expressed at a convention. The merchants
and manufacturers, in other words, come to-
gether to do business, to buy and sell. Even
the Association business takes very little time
as compared with the big business of exhibiting
and inspecting new models, buying and selling.
The technicians are really out of it here. They
have nothing to sell, and the things they buy,
actions, keys, lumber, wire, felt, varnish, are
not fit subjects for display before a crowd of
visitors nearly all intent only on the finished
article.
On the other hand, as the tuners have grown
and prospered, their convention has gradually
come to assume the proportions of a great
technical exposition. Manufacturers of players,
of piano actions, of tools, of supplies of every
kind, have acquired the habit of displaying
their latest ideas and achievements before these
service men, to common benefit. It must be
evident that if, to the tuners, were now added
once a year the small numbers but great in-
fluence of the factory technicians, who include
in their group the most influential shop super
intendents, technical supply men and experts in
the industry, the supply houses would be only
too glad to come forward, in even greater
numbers, because they would be assured of an
audience (or rather a combined audience and
vidience), including both the men who buy
their wares and the men who use and criticize
them outside the factories.
FAUST SCHOOL
OF TUNING
Standard of America
Alumni of 2000
Piano Tuning, Pipe and Reed
Organ and Player Piano
YEAR BOOK FREE
27-29 Gainsboro Street
BOSTON, MASS.
Tuners and Repairers
Our new illustrated catalogue of Piano and
Player Hardware Felts and Tools is now
ready. If you haven't received your copy
please let us know.
OTTO R. TREFZ, JR.
1305-7-9 No. 27th St.
Phila., Pa.
This much, of course, ought to be evident,
but there is still more to say in favor of my
proposal. The tuners and the shop technicians
are natural allies. They talk the same lan-
guage, they deal with the same things. The
prosperity of the industry is very vitally bound
up with their agreement and may be hurt deep-
ly by their disagreement. They have far more
to do with each other than either of them has
with the other branches of the industry. As
things now stand the technicians are lost in
the big convention of the merchants and the
manufacturers. Joined with the tuners, they
would not only be among friends, but would
feel themselves far more important, far more
entitled to consideration than is the present.
Moreover, the early part of August is of all
times of the year that one which the factory
men can best take for a holiday away from the
shop. The Fall preparations begin shortly
afterwards, but from July 15 and for thirty
days thereafter the shops are quiet and the
superintendents can most easily get away.
I should like to have from readers some ex-
pressions of opinion upon these suggestions.
Correspondence
is solicited and should be addressed to William
Braid White, 5149 Agatite avenue, Chicago.
Elaborate Exhibits of the Ampico at
the Recent National Tuners' Convention
Classes on the Ampico Reproducing Mechanism and Grand Action Regulating Have
Big Attendance From the Tuners in New York for the National Meeting
HE Ampico activities at the recent conven-
T tion
of the National Piano Tuners' Associa-
tion, under, the direction of E. S. Werolin, of
the Ampico Service Department, met with a
Exhibits of the Am-
pico Corp. at the
R e c e n t National
Tuners' Convention,
Hotel Commodore,
New York
Ampico mechanism, the other with grand action
regulating. The student was thus enabled
quickly to determine the points on which he
was weak and devote his time to clearing
Upper Right:
Registration office.
Upper Left:
Ampico Exhibit.
Lower Center:
Grand Regulation
Classroom.
Oval:
Reception Room.
response highly gratifying to those in charge
of the exhibits and the sessions of the Ampico
school. The Ampico classes met with especially
enthusiastic response, being crowded to ca-
pacity. It soon became evident that supple-
mentary sessions would be necessary to
accommodate all who wished to avail them-
selves of. the instruction freely offered, not only
regarding the Ampico mechanism but grand
action regulation also.
A student upon entering the Ampico classes
was handed two questionnaires entitled "What
Do You Know?" One of these dealt with the
them up. Upon leaving he was given additional
folders entitled "What You Should Know,"
again providing quick access to a summing up
of his status as a repair man.
At the close of the convention a special ses-
sion of the Ampico school was held at the
offices of the Service Department. Both the
day and evening sessions were well attended.
As a useful souvenir of the assembling in New
York of repair men, a special set of grand
regulating tools, including a touch block, touch
plate and a hammer blow measurer, were hand-
ed to repair men requesting them.
Mahogany Imports
Mexico and other sources were slightly lower
than for the first six months of the previous
year.
WASHINGTON, D. G, August 27.—Imports of
mahogany logs into the United States showed
a marked gain during the first six months of
1927 as compared to the figures for the first
half of 1926, according to the report of the
Lumber Division of the Department of Com-
merce. Mahogany log imports totaled 39,441,-
000 feet, gaining 8,000,000 over last year. From
Africa 15,565,000 feet were imported as com-
pared to 12,526,000 feet last year; from Central
American countries 18,370,000 feet as compared
with 11,603,000 feet last year. Imports from
Hardwood Men's Meeting
CHICAGO, III., August 28.—The next annual con-
vention of the National Hardwood Lumber Asso-
ciation will be held at the Congress Hotel, this
city, on September 15 and 16. The association,
which has headquarters at 2008 Straus Building,
has just issued a booklet containing proposed new
inspection rules, whjch will be acted upon at the
convention.