For over 40 years now I have restored player pianos, reproducing
pianos, nickelodeons, band organs and pipe organs.  I have taught
many people to do various jobs in this process and a few I have taught
the complete comprehensive job of total restoration, most of them so
I could pay them to work for me doing so.  It is next to impossible
to find a usable employee in a player shop.  I have tried many times.

As far as piano tech schools, they have all closed.  This craft has
gone back to an apprentice way of learning once the big Chicago piano
technician school shut down a couple years ago.

I want to describe the difficulties of training people and offer a
possible answer to the crisis we now have of no one being capable of
practicing our art and craft after we retire or whatever.

I had one new employee who was extremely interested in players
and doing the work.  He begged for months and finally I hired him.
After one day he quit.  He didn't know it was so much work.  He was
overwhelmed with the job.  Several others quit saying it was too much
work.  The guy who quit after his one day did practically nothing
that day.

I had one guy who totally destroyed a set of player wippens by putting
the center pins into the new flanges by making totally new holes in the
wippens where no hole should be.

I had another who was taught to bush keys and he spent two days bushing
a set of keys and when I noted that it had taken him days to do a
two-hour job he told me he didn't have the proper "motivation" for
the job.  I asked what the heck he was talking about and I was told,
"I don't make enough money to do this!"

We talked and he said he could make more money washing dishes at the
nearby cafeteria.  I told him that is exactly what he should do.  He
left and I went to finish the bushing job to find that he had crammed
several inches of bushing felt into many of the bushing holes meaning
I had to do the _whole_ job all over.

Suffice it to say about 15 years ago I swore I would never teach
anyone this craft again unless they paid me for the privilege.  I have
had a couple of takers.  One who was younger than me did very well; he
learned to rebuild several instruments and then a few years later died
of severe health issues.  Another simply dropped out and quit coming.

Both of them paid me for my time.  I found that if I don't get paid for
my time I literally lose my shirt in the process.  I spend lots of time
away from my work training them, then I pay them for their work, then
I later may find what was not done correctly and I have to do it over
again.  So for beginners, I basically pay three or four times for every
job they do for most of a year before they get good enough to leave
them to work on their own.

I have also been able to hire one or two who came already restoring
and I was able to hone their skills and teach them faster, more
efficient ways of doing this work.  While many rebuilders do a halfway
restoration and it takes them months or years to complete it, we always
replace every piece of felt leather and rubber and cloth every time and
we very seldom need to go out on warranty service calls.  Doing it our
way takes days or weeks to finish restoration.

Stringing, of course takes much longer as we heat the soundboard for
a month in our dry room and re-crown the board to return the power to
the tone of the piano.  Most of our time is spent regulating valves
and piano action to concert level of regulation.  Finding someone to
regulate a grand or even an upright is very difficult these days.  Most
tuners can't or don't want to do it or learn to do it.

My solution is I am willing to teach someone who is seriously
interested in learning the art of pneumatic and piano restoration.  It
will be 48 weeks of training of 3 days per week.  I will teach player
tech and enough piano tech skills to refurbish a piano to be played by
a well-restored player system.  If they want to learn extensive piano
restoration I will take another 48 weeks to train on that.  You must
live nearby so you can come in three days per week for training.

After approximately six months you may bring your own player or pick
out one from the storage that you will completely restore on your own.
Training on restoration will be on pianos that I have in storage so
trainees will not be working on customer pianos until they are highly
qualified.  A graduate will likely be hired to work for us or we will
wish them well on setting up their own shop across the country where
they wish to do so.  They will each be required to sign a non-compete
agreement within 100 miles of our location.

The cost of this one-year training will be approximately what it would
cost to have us restore a player from top to bottom.  You will also
need to pay rent and living expenses so you can be available for
classes.  I can take one or two at a time.  I have several who have
asked for this but they have no money to spend on learning or living
while learning.

I had an idea that I could put up a kickstarter or gofundme campaign
to raise the money for one of these interested youngsters to come and
learn.  I don't know all about doing that or whether it would be
successful.  What does this community think?

Is there sincere interest in learning this enough to invest a year
doing so and invest several thousand dollars in learning?  Are you
sincere enough to come live in another town to learn a lifelong art
and craft for a year?  Would anyone invest in a gofundme campaign to
extend our field of interest another generation of rebuilders,
technicians and admirers?

Let me know what you think.

Doug L. Bullock
St. Louis metro area
http://thepianoworld.com/