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Open for business

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After restoring my own pianos for four years, I’ve decided to open my shop to customers’ instruments. Each of the six pianos I’ve restored to date were stripped down entirely to their individual components and rebuilt. So I feel confident in taking in others’ instruments – confident that I know how to perform typical repair and maintenance procedures and that I can do the job correctly with the initial learning curve behind me.

For a couple of years, I’ve been posting my financial and labor records on this website using my ShopChart management application and I plan to continue doing so. Between ShopChart and the photos I post to this website, customers will be able to keep close track of the progress of their instruments.

I’ll offer full restorations, individual repairs or even service on individual components like keys and pickups. And although I don’t work on electronics, local amplifier repairman and former Rhodes service technician Paul Schmittauer has agreed to handle work on the amplifiers and preamps of any Suitcase pianos that might come my way.

Rhodes Caddy

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2 Comments

When I started lugging my 54 around to shows, I soon decided that it needed casters. When I restore the case on that piano, I won’t want to ruin the original look by reinstalling those casters. Also, with a small shop, I need to be able to move other pianos around easily. Building a dolly out of angle iron was a very easy, straightforward project.
Materials included two five-foot pieces of angle iron, four 2″ casters, 16 1/4″x1 carriage bolts and 16 1/4″ nylon lock nuts. After cutting the angle iron, the unit just bolted together. At first, I planned on installing cross bracing, but after tightening the corners, it was clear this was unnecessary. The 1″ carriage bolts were the smallest I found but they were still too long and obstructed the motion of the caster so I cut them off after tightening everything down.
Some strips of 1-1/4″ foam rubber weather stripping added the finishing touch and made for a (nearly) perfect fit.