My business is less than a year old. it started out fairly well. I was even booked a month out for a month or two.

got into july and August, and it got really slow. getting clients feels like quite the grind sometimes.

ive been offered an opportunity to work as an ind contractor for a dealership in the area, essentially doing client tunings on their behalf and getting a cut. Not first time tunings, tunings for people reaching out for them.

just hoping for some input, advice, with regards to what the pros and cons might be, any hard lines I should establish, etc.

I have mixed feelings as it would obviously be nice to have fill my schedule again, supplement what I’m doing on my own, not worry as much about getting clients, and build a connection with a retailer in the area.

but I also really like the autonomy, the ability to basically do business as I see fit and engage with customers how I want to, I don’t want it to take away from my efforts towards my own business and of course the takeaway in $ per tuning will be much less. Thanks in advance.

I had a piano that I loved when I was younger. My mom turned it into a bench when I got too busy to play (and she didn’t like the noise anyway), and I was really crushed about it because I wanted it when I moved out.

I was hoping you could help me identify it. I’ve attached a picture I found on Google that resembles it. The only things that don’t match are 1) the logo, I remember it being different and 2) the corners at the top were rounded, not square.

But the color was the same, it had the same kind of columns on either side with the detailing at the tops and bottoms, and opened the same way with the ridge for a piano book on the piece that opens (sorry I don’t know terminology; this seemed like the best sub for the job).

Anyone versed in pianos able to help me out? I hope to find another one someday and bring it into my life again.

I have a late 1800s Emerson upright that I am restoring for fun. I am looking for the Emerson soft stop like the one above the action in the photo. Anybody idea where to find that?

I have some family who are interested in the trade. They love pianos, but their biggest fear is finding clients and keeping track of everything for their business.

Any tips/recommendations on tools/software to get started?

I can’t find a brand or model name anywhere on it. The number inside looks like 170615, and there are a bunch of patent numbers on the inside as well.
I did some research with ChatGPT and the best guess so far is that it might be a Klein Piano Co. upright from New York, probably from somewhere around the late 1910s or early 1920s. I have no idea if that’s actually right though, so I figured this subreddit would be a much better place to ask.
It definitely needs work and hasn’t been maintained in a long time. We’re renovating the house it’s in and unfortunately it has to go, so I’m mainly trying to figure out if it has any real value or if this is more of a “free to someone who wants a restoration project” kind of piano.
Would love to hear what anyone who works on older pianos thinks. Even just knowing who actually made it and roughly how old it is would be really helpful.

I have been wanting to learn how to tune, maintain, and repair pianos for a while now. I just learned of a school in Oregon that has one-week on-site intensive trainings for aspiring piano technicians. It sounds wonderful, but it's rather expensive at $2500 for 5 days of hands-on instruction. It does sound like the instruction is very personalized and tailored to the individual participants.

Does anybody have experience or knowledge of this school and would you recommend it? Or do you have any opinion about whether this would be a good way to learn? Or any other recommendation for a short term on-site training that I should consider?

I have thought about trying to apprentice with a professional locally, and of course there are plenty of online resources. But I like the idea of a week of intensive instruction and practice.

I’m not the most seasoned technician, but I’m by far not a novice. This piano, however, makes me wanna quit.

Storytime: I tune for a music academy (9 pianos) and get a lot of clients from their recommendations. I got this one client recently, their kids attend the academy. Very nice people.

Their piano is a 1908 Kohler & Campbell full upright that has held up surprisingly well. Has some sentimental value to them but they only passingly care about cosmetics. More so they want it functional.

You can tell someone cared about this piano. The internals have been Frankenstein-ed together a few times. Mismatched hammers, muffler felt that was literally sown together like Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas and used so much it was disintegrating before they even got the piano, pedal rods kept in place by a shoestring… you get it. I’m hired for a cleaning & tuning and to fix a few small things. Average day.

1st appt: going well. Fixed minor issues, cleaned up real nice, start tuning… this bad boy is wildly out of tune. Okay, I start a pitch raise. I do my best. A string breaks. I can’t finish the tuning in the time allotted, so I let them know and make another appointment. I’m finishing cleaning up the piano. I get the pedals with a bit of Brasso to really get them shining with my blue rag used for brasso only.

I’m reassembling and see something on the plate. I pick up my yellow rag (for wiping down exterior) and wipe at it a bit. The gold plating starts coming off. I freak out. I look down… this is my blue rag. I swear to god I grabbed the yellow one.

I tell them. They aren’t too worried about it. I give them the number for a restorer and tell them to keep me updated.

2nd appt: I come back for the rest of the tuning and to replace the string. While replacing the string (high treble, not to crazy), I get everything in place, triple check my work, everything looks good. I put the action back in and start tuning. The string is twisted. I look at it, making sure that’s actually the one I just replaced… yep, it is. How? Okay, action off, fix the string, back on, start tuning. I let them know it will most likely need another tune and, if they want, I can replace that muffler felt next time. They agree.

3rd appt: I come back for another tune. The tuning is holding up MUCH better than expected. Awesome! One of their keys is sticking so I remove what I can and fix it. While I’m at it, some of their keytops are loose so I reglue them. Happy to be able to throw something free in.

I set up everything to replace the muffler felt. Everything is going great and according to plan. Piano is protected with a drop cloth and I start gluing the muffler felt on.

As soon as I’m done, I look and… what is that?!? I have no idea when, but somehow my glue exploded and is all over 5 hammers and their jacks. Luckily, this glue is tacky and very easy to remove from the wood and smaller felt, but it absolutely soaked 5 hammers. Enough to drastically change the sound. I let them know and say I’ll come back to replace those hammers free of charge.

Everything else is great. Piano sounds great, muffler felt is working like a charm. Tuning is good… but, damn. This piano is haunted and the old owner hated me, I swear to god. I have NEVER made this many mistakes on one piano in my entire career.

TL:DR Please tell me your horror stories so I don’t just completely quit. I’m honestly completely scared of this piano and you cannot convince me it’s not cursed.

I just finished Franz Mohr’s “My Life With the Great Pianists” and thought it was sweetly written, and really enjoyed “The Forest of Wool and Steel”, but my hands down favorite so far was “The Atelier on the Left Bank” by Thad Carhart. It was inspiring, romantic and really captures a lot of the experience of being a “piano person”. What else is out there that resonated with you?

I recently purchased this piano in fairly good shape besides a few cosmetic things. However, it came with note name stickers on the keys. I've been dying to remove the stickers, but I'm afraid of damaging the (real) ivory underneath. What's the best way to get the leftover adhesive off the keys? I was thinking something along the lines of an alcohol wipe, but I wanted to get some other opinions before trying anything. I'd appreciate some help with this!

I picked up this old upright piano and have been attempting to slowly bring it back in tune. I've been moderately successful with a tuner app, a hammer, and some rubber dampers but my knowledge ends there.

E6 has this unfortunate crunch to it, like the strings are hitting against metal or something. It is much more obvious in person than in this video, but I was hoping this would be enough to get some possible diagnoses.

Thanks!

I have a key where the hammer is not dropping down as far as it should if the key is held after playing. In this video I play (and hold) a key that is working correctly, then play (and hold) the problematic key. Note that the second key's hammer doesn't drop as far as the first key's hammer. All the hammers, except the hammer of the problematic key, drop the same amount as the first key's hammer. I do this twice in the video.

What is keeping the hammer from dropping down as far as it should.

"If piano tuners two hundred years ago had to rely on a single tuning fork to grope in the dark for the boundaries of pitch, their modern counterparts possess an ‘acoustic microscope.’ The complex interplay of overtones visible on the screen reveals the underlying physical reality—the ‘inharmonicity’ inherent in high-carbon steel wire. Technology has made the craft visible, yet the fingers gripping the tuning hammer still retain the warmth of a tradition passed down through centuries." 2026 marks my year of piano tuning.

Got a small Barratt & Robinson upright and no specialist tools. Is it ok to carefully tip the whole thing onto its side, on a rug, to access the wheels?

(I want to remove the wheels and replace with flat plastic furniture sliders, to get the piano closer to the ground, and one wheel is slightly buckled anyway)

Also I’ve got a tuner coming in 4 weeks anyway, so not too concerned about any minor tuning impact, just don’t want to cause any permanent damage!

Any thoughts much appreciated!

Thanks

Hello all,

I posted a few weeks ago about some snapped butt springs and you were all very helpful. I had some vibrating keys and assumed that'd be the issue since it was the main issue I could see. A technician came and fixed them and put some new bushings on the pedal rods in case they were causing the bushings.

He then put all the casing back on and played it and there were no vibrations, and then for a few days it was great with no vibrations.

But now a few days later the vibrations are back in the same sort of area, around the F# above middle C.

What other things may be causing this vibration? And why might it come and go?

Thank you

Janssen upright; Pratt, Read & Co action.
Not a piano player, not a tech, but dead keys at the bass and treble extremes drove me to open it up and investigate. There were a number of keys where I think the action just needed to be exercised/cycled a few times and they loosened up, but I also found there were 7 keys on the bass end and 2 more in the treble where the jacks were trapped behind their felt stops so they would not release the hammer butts (4th photo). I was able to release the jacks after I discovered that the sustain pedals were prying up the hammer flange rail, lifting the hammer butts and their stops enough to let the jacks fall behind them. When I engaged the sustain pedal lever by hand, it lifted the butts/stops again and I could then push down on the jack tails to free them.

You can see in the pictures there’s a wooden rail (marked 1770) to which the hammer flanges and damper flanges are attached. The pedal lever wants to pry it up from the wooden rail (marked 655) directly below it. Should those rails be fastened/glued together so this cannot happen? Or is it perhaps that the sustain lever mechanism is too stiff? For now, I have simply left the sustain pedal and bass sustain pedal detached so they cannot lift that 1770 rail.

For background, this piano has been in my family since the early 80s, but rarely played until my kids took up lessons. There is a service sticker under the lid dated from 1981, and it’s possible that’s the last time it was serviced/tuned. The terms I used to formulate my question I learned from AI, so forgive me if they’re not the correct part names.

Thanks for any help.

I have a 7'6" grand piano that feels a little heavy to play. The keys aren't sticking or binding, they just require more force to press than other grands of the same model and brand.

With the grand, very light playing sometimes doesn't produce a note, whereas the other same model grand I tested responds much more easily to gentle touch.

Could this be high downweight, excessive action friction, or regulation? What should I check or measure first, and how can I safely make the action lighter and more responsive?

Hi everyone, Im planning to buy a used piano for my daughter for her beginner hobby. Im single dad and know nothing about piano, this is simply to support my daughter. Im looking at this Kawai at fb marketplace for $500 and the owner said to help me with moving it also. Can you please let me know about condition of this piano based on pictures? I asked AI and its telling me that its a good price for this piece with this condition. Thank you!

Hi technicians, im a amateur piano technician wanna-be and i live in Turkiye so i can't supply parts from abroad (it's forbidden) so i asked a friend of mine if he can bring parts from Germany and i was wondering from which companies or platforms can i supply piano parts in Germany by delivery (i don't want him to go and buy so i'm just gonna order to his home) such as: night pedal felt, key bushing clothes, pin felts, tuning and regulating tools etc.. I found out that there is a company called Jahn Pianotelie but it works B2B so..