Your piano is a remarkable piece of engineering and craftsmanship that requires regular care and tuning from a professional piano technician to sound and play at its best.
As a Certified Piano Technician I am fully qualified to keep your piano working and sounding great, offering tuning, regulation, voicing, general repairs and reconditioning.

My goal is to provide my highest level of workmanship with reliable and courteous customer service. But most importantly, I want to earn your trust as someone you will be at ease with in your home or business caring for a prized possession.

Touch weight studies

Touch weight describes the amount of effort or weight required to depress a piano key. It is an often overlooked component of piano maintenance, and can make all the difference in your enjoyment of playing your piano. 

Recently I was thrilled to attend a training session 'Touch Weight Metrology' with the renowned David Stanwood. His methods use an engineer's thinking to approach the issue of getting the right 'feel' in a piano action. 

To learn more about the Stanwood's methods visit his website at www.stanwoodpiano.com. 

Please contact me anytime to discuss having a touch weight analysis done on your piano.

See how piano key re-covering is done

This short YouTube video showcases a recent project to replace badly chipped ivory keys with beautiful new acrylic keys.

Is Full Day Service for you?

Do you own a high quality instrument that's lost its sparkle? Or, did you recently come to possess an old piano that has been neglected and needs to be raised from the dead?
In either case, you should consider hiring me for a full day service session with your piano. Tasks will vary based on my assessment, but often include cleaning, voicing and regulation, and of course, tuning. Summer is a great time to have this work done, when the piano is typically used less. See my Service page to learn more.

Spring is a great time to tune up

The arrival of Spring means showers and flowers, but also higher humidity and warmer temperatures inside the house. Many homes will get up to 60% relative humidity indoors at this time of year, compared to 30% or less in winter. This has a major effect on the tuning of your piano.
It's an ideal time to get a piano tuning done! Call me now or click the Book Now button to the right to get started.

Piano Life Saver certified installer

I have successfully completed the exams to become a Certified Installer of the Piano Life Saver System.

Normal day to day humidity changes in every home are the enemy of piano tuning, and in the long term can be very harmful to a piano. The Piano Life Saver is an excellent product that solves this problem by creating a micro climate within the piano to control humidity within a very tight range.

See my Services page or the Piano Life Saver website to learn more.

Key re-covering project

I have a nice Steinway K upright in shop right now for some keyboard work.

See my facebook page to read the article.

A gift of long remembered music

A very rewarding part of my job is feeling a social connection to my customers. My client Paul Benedetti has written this nice piece about their family piano and how it creates a connection across the generations. 

Click here to read the article.

New video

I recently completed some work in my shop on a vintage Bell vertical. There's a new video on the Restorations page showcasing the project.

Read more...

Website redesign

This site has been redesigned for 2011 and hopefully makes it easier and faster to find the information you need.

I'd like to point out the new booking widget that allows you to browse my calendar and book an appointment on the spot. This is a great time saver for us both as it prevents the many email and voice mail 'ping-pongs'. You will also get a confirmation email with your booking and a reminder email the day prior. Of course you call always call or email to make booking arrangements that way.

How often should a piano be tuned?

On average, in a fairly stable environment a piano should be tuned at least every six months to a year. Any longer than a year and extra work may be required to bring it back into stable tuning. Pianos exposed to changing humidity, such as a home heated in the winter but humid in summer, will need attention from a tuner more often. Any piano that is moved to a new location will need tuning. It may be best to let the piano adjust to the new environmental conditions before tuning, if possible; otherwise the piano may need tuning again soon as it adjusts to new humidity levels. Professional pianists often require that their pianos be tuned before every performance. New pianos usually require tuning several times in the first year until the new strings settle.
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Why do pianos go out of tune?

The main reason is changes in humidity. Much of a piano's workings are wood, which shrinks and expands as humidity changes. For example, as the home heating season begins, and dry, heated air replaces more the humid air of other seasons, the wood dries and shrinks. This reduces tension on the soundboard, and the notes sound flat. Other common reasons a piano goes out of tune include the jostling of a move, or loose tuning pins that slip. If the same notes tend to go flat time after time, it may be that the tuning pins are slipping, reducing tension on the strings, thus making them flat. And of course, the more often a piano is played the more likely the tuning will be affected.
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What is a "pitch raise" or "pitch adjustment"?

A pitch raise is essentially an extensive tuning that must be done on a piano that is very out of tune, such as one left un-tuned for several years or more. When a piano is left un-tuned for a long time, so many strings become out of tune that the tension across the entire soundboard changes. In this condition, tuning one string will affect the tuning on other strings. A vicious cycle ensues where previously tuned notes lose tune every time a new note is tuned, like a dog chasing its tail. To correct for this, the tuner will do a pitch raise, where every string's tension is adjusted in one pass, to bring the tension on the entire soundboard close to what is desired. Then, often after a resting period, the tuner can perform the precise tuning of individual strings without affecting the others. Several passes may be needed before the pitches stabilize. Click here to learn more about pitch raises from the Piano Technician's Guild.
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