Piano Technicians Guild
Oklahoma Chapter Minutes
August 15, 2002


The meeting was held at Albert Evans Store in Oklahoma City and was called to order at 9:02AM by Ben Davis, filling in for Bob Scheer.

David Bonham gave the invocation. Minutes were read, corrected and accepted.

Treasurer’s report indicated a balance of $2,380.38.

Bob Johnson, President of Texas State Convention, was introduced by Ben & Norman.
Two reasons were given for Bob’s visit with us: 1) examining the hotel site for the TSA seminar to be held in Oklahoma, and 2) discuss the current scheduled October 2003 time slot and possibly changing it. The general concensus of those Chapter members present was there would be no problem with moving the host date to March 2004.

It was also announced that John Patton of Steinway & Sons will be one of the instructors for the seminar, and that Don Manino and Laroy Edwards are a possibility. It was also mentioned that the Holiday Inn Airport is being considered for the on-site hotel.

September 19th is the next meeting date and will be at the Larsen Music Store with Laroy Edwards giving the program.

The technical presentation for this meeting was by David Bonham on Key Leveling. The patients were an Everett Spinet piano and a Steinway Grand piano. David introduced two different methods for each type piano.

For the vertical an aluminum rail and three wood dowels were used to establish height and level of the keys. Primarily a visual operation which proved to be very efficient in its implementation and desired results.

For the grand piano a Jaras leveling system was used which actually measures the difference between what exists and what is wanted. Measurements are taken by one person and recorded by another on paper. Once this is accomplished correct shim punchings are calculated and installed. The chart for recording the measurements was created by Barbara Bonham.

Overall, an excellent presentation showing how to accomplish a very decent key leveling job that can be done with remarkable accuracy!

By the end of the meeting twelve persons had been in attendance:
Ben Davis, Keith McGavern, Norman Cantrell, Don Bonds, David & Barbara Bonham, Ed Hamby, Bob Johnson, Albert Evans, Tom Nix, Craig Lynch, Gary Bruce.

Meeting adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,
Keith McGavern, RPT
Oklahoma Chapter Secretary