Additional Information

My Approach

I specialize in providing thorough, top quality service appointments and professional consultation and referral. Every appointment includes a moderate amount of cleaning (usually interior vacuuming and key cleaning, and more if possible) and extensive tuning. I am often also able to include minor adjustments to improve performance.

*There are a variety of repairs and rebuilding that I refer to trusted colleagues, although I am happy to discuss all types of work with customers.

Tuning is my primary passion and skill, and it is absolutely essential for every piano. I rely on my knowledge of tuning theory and my highly trained ears (not electronic devices) to listen to every single note and determine how it sounds best on your piano and in your space. Feel free to ask me more about tuning or to demonstrate some of its concepts.

Piano Expectations

Pianos are very complex machines/instruments. They range in quality and design much like cars or appliances, and also degrade from age and wear similarly. 

Because pianos are sensitive to humidity changes, are mechanical devices, and require periodic re-tensioning (tuning), it is important to have them maintained regularly, no matter their design or age. One tuning per year is recommended as a minimum, although most pianos noticeably benefit from 2 or more tunings per year. 

The longer a piano has gone without maintenance, the greater effort will be required to return it to a maintained state. When a piano has gone very far out of tune (for a variety of reasons), it will typically require more frequent tunings initially to return it to a state of being stably in-tune. Unmaintained pianos with degraded mechanisms may require significant investment to return the mechanism to smoothly working condition.

Generally speaking, older pianos tend to have more sound and performance issues related to their age and condition; and inexpensive pianos tend to have more issues related to their design and construction materials. But no piano is perfect, even the $100K+ variety! I'm happy to inspect any issue you may be curious about during an appointment, and to refer more complex issues to piano experts specializing in those repairs.

Contact

Text Preferred:
​(503) 501-8707