Historic Traditions:
Piano maintenance is a age old skill dating back over 300 years of tradition. The issue time has created is that there is a large variety of short and long term fixes that have all become standardized fixes in today's field of tuning and repair. This Old Piano tm standardizes what we consider to be the best long term repairs and tuning methods while passing these traditions down to our tuners and technicians. Likewise our tuners and technicians hold our highest standards if they wish to utilize our name in there personal advertisement and day to day practices.
Factory Tuning Methods:
Our tuning methods focus on tuning the piano while maintaining even pressure across the several bridges located on a piano. It is similar to how a piano is first strung when it comes out of a factory resetting the piano to its highest production of tone while providing evenness on the sound board which will allow the tuning to last as long as possible given the pianos atmospheric conditions.
Restoration and Maintenance.
When we restore a piano we do it to factory standards keeping the piano to the highest quality standard it was originally designed to be held up to. By maintaining factory standards we honor the top notch craftsmanship that was originally put into the instrument while preserving the tone the instrument was meant to have while it's sound board becomes richer in tone over the years. We do not "rebuild" pianos which is a movement of piano repair started in the 1980's and is not standardized to factory standards..
Why we don't "Rebuild" pianos:
The rebuilding industry is not a standardized field and the level of work being performed regardless of cost wavers from excellent to very poor and short term. In our experience the majority of "rebuilt" pianos we have seen, fixed, or appraised are done to lower than factory standards including low quality strings, low torque oversize tuning pins, and a replaced sound board or tuning block with unregulated standards in wood quality and construction. There are in fact a number of pianos that have been rebuilt to high quality factory standards, but the majority of rebuilds we have seen have been done to lower than factory quality standards. Thou these poor standards have become standard in today's field of repair we still do not considered them rebuilt, just poorly repaired. We only consider a piano actually "rebuilt" when the heart of the instrument (it's sound board) is replaced. Once a piano's sound board is replaced it's age value is reset giving it the tone of a modern piano with a new sound board harvested from today's variety of tone woods. Likewise a 1884 piano is going to sound closer to a 2012 piano if that was the year it sound board was replaced. As historians and professional musicians with trained ears we will always prefer the tone and resonance of a aged sound and thus do not consider the modern concept of "rebuilding" pianos something we would endorse as a organization. If it sounds good don't replace it, and a cracked sound board can always be professionally restored to full resonance. Though aesthetically it will not be perfect its tone will sound better repaired as opposed to replaced.
Piano maintenance is a age old skill dating back over 300 years of tradition. The issue time has created is that there is a large variety of short and long term fixes that have all become standardized fixes in today's field of tuning and repair. This Old Piano tm standardizes what we consider to be the best long term repairs and tuning methods while passing these traditions down to our tuners and technicians. Likewise our tuners and technicians hold our highest standards if they wish to utilize our name in there personal advertisement and day to day practices.
Factory Tuning Methods:
Our tuning methods focus on tuning the piano while maintaining even pressure across the several bridges located on a piano. It is similar to how a piano is first strung when it comes out of a factory resetting the piano to its highest production of tone while providing evenness on the sound board which will allow the tuning to last as long as possible given the pianos atmospheric conditions.
Restoration and Maintenance.
When we restore a piano we do it to factory standards keeping the piano to the highest quality standard it was originally designed to be held up to. By maintaining factory standards we honor the top notch craftsmanship that was originally put into the instrument while preserving the tone the instrument was meant to have while it's sound board becomes richer in tone over the years. We do not "rebuild" pianos which is a movement of piano repair started in the 1980's and is not standardized to factory standards..
Why we don't "Rebuild" pianos:
The rebuilding industry is not a standardized field and the level of work being performed regardless of cost wavers from excellent to very poor and short term. In our experience the majority of "rebuilt" pianos we have seen, fixed, or appraised are done to lower than factory standards including low quality strings, low torque oversize tuning pins, and a replaced sound board or tuning block with unregulated standards in wood quality and construction. There are in fact a number of pianos that have been rebuilt to high quality factory standards, but the majority of rebuilds we have seen have been done to lower than factory quality standards. Thou these poor standards have become standard in today's field of repair we still do not considered them rebuilt, just poorly repaired. We only consider a piano actually "rebuilt" when the heart of the instrument (it's sound board) is replaced. Once a piano's sound board is replaced it's age value is reset giving it the tone of a modern piano with a new sound board harvested from today's variety of tone woods. Likewise a 1884 piano is going to sound closer to a 2012 piano if that was the year it sound board was replaced. As historians and professional musicians with trained ears we will always prefer the tone and resonance of a aged sound and thus do not consider the modern concept of "rebuilding" pianos something we would endorse as a organization. If it sounds good don't replace it, and a cracked sound board can always be professionally restored to full resonance. Though aesthetically it will not be perfect its tone will sound better repaired as opposed to replaced.
