As a piano technician...

I offer a full range of services needed to keep your upright or grand piano in the best possible playing condition.  Tuning is at the heart of any technician's business and most all use electronic tuning devices (ETD's) for efficiency.  I combine the ETD tuning with aural checks to insure that the best possible tuning is delivered for your piano.  My repair skills cover all the common problems such as broken strings, sticking keys, pedal problems, etc.  I've also had experience solving more difficult problems with odd noises, etc. as well as full-set keytop replacement, key rebushing and hammer replacement.  Finally, I'm experienced in making all of the adjustments (regulation) required on upright and grand pianos for optimal power and repetition.

My clientele ranges from private homes to institutional settings.  For the latter, I regularly tune at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory School in San Francisco, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and at Pianos Plus in Castro Valley.  On occasion, I've also tuned pianos at Hyde St. Studio, The Hotel Nikko and Norwegian Cruise Lines.

Licenses, Insurance and Affiliations

•  I am fully insured and carry a San Francisco business license

•  Associate Member of the Piano Technicians Guild (PTG).  (I'm working towards Registered Piano Technician certification, having passed two of the three tests so far.) 

•  Business Affiliate Member of the Music Teachers' Association of California (MTAC).  Be sure to visit their website if you are looking for a piano teacher.

•  I hold an active Transportation Workers Information Card (TWIC) from the TSA for services in ports and on cruise ships. 

Education

•  8/2009 - Graduate of "Yamaha Little Red Schoolhouse" in piano regulation and Disklavier service.  Little Red Schoolhouse is Yamaha's invitation-only in-house training for piano technicians.  It is led by piano technician LaRoy Edwards, who is widely regarded as one of the top tech's in the world (that's me with LaRoy in the photo below).  The 50 hours of training (lecture and hands-on practice) covered all aspects of detailed, fine piano regulation and Disklavier support and service.

•  1/2007 - Graduate of "Intermediate Training Seminar" held at Montana State University School of Music, Bozeman, Montana, presented by The Randy Potter School of Piano Technology.  This was a week-long intensive training and hands-on practice for tuning temperaments, repair and regulation.  While there, I took and passed the RPT Written Exam.

•  8/2006 :: 1/2007 - Graduate of "Basic and Intermediate Course in Piano Tuning, Repairing, Regulating, Apprentice Training and Business Practices Training", The Randy Potter School of Piano Technology (Bend, Oregon). 

•  Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Other Training and Classes

Continuing education and professional development are important no matter what career path you follow.  Fortunately, there are many opportunities through Technology Schools and the Piano Technicians Guild (PTG).  Here are just a few of the classes I have attended:

•  6/2010 - 2010 Annual PTG Convention (Las Vegas, NV).  Another great week of presentations by the top technicians from around the world.  I focused on a few areas this year, including:

•  Hammers and Voicing.  Since the hammers are core to so much of the sound and tone from a piano, many technicians consider these to be the "crown jewels".  I attended one half-day presentation by Jack Brand of Wurzen Felts on the making of hammer felt and a full-day class by Andre Oorebeek on the finer points of voicing.

•  Aural Tuning.  I continue working to refine my aural tuning skills and attended sessions by Jim Coleman Sr., Ward Guthrie, Rick Baldassin, Don Manino and Bill Bremmer.  All of these technicians are widely respected for their aural tuning skills and techniques.  It was a real pleasure watching and learning from them.  

•  Steinway Appraisals.  This session given by Kent Webb showed general appraisal techniques as well as items that are unique to the Steinway and Sons brand. 

•  4/2010 - Presentation by David Love, RPT on tradeoffs to be made in selecting replacement hammers for aging pianos. David is one of the leading technicians in SF focused on Steinway servicing and rebuilding. 

•  3/2010 - Presentation by Udo Steingraeber, fifth generation of the Steingraeber piano family.  Mr. Steingraeber discussed the finer design and manufacturing details of their pianos. 

•  2/2010 - Presentation by Larry Lobel, RPT and Zhiwei Huang, RPT on the "In's and Out's of Spinet Service".  In particular, Zhiwei showed how a dramatic improvement can be made to the overall tone and sound of the instrument. 

•  1/2010 - Presentation by Douglas Braak on Regulating the Steinway Sostenuto.  Douglas covered regulation of both the fixed and hinged tab designs. 

•  10/2009 - Presentation by Carl Lieberman of Reyburn Cyber Tuner (RCT, electronic tuning software popular with many piano technicians).  Carl talked about some of the more subtle features of RCT.

•  7/2009 - 2009 Annual PTG Convention (Grand Rapids, MI).  Five days of classes and seminars given by some of the top piano technicians in the world.  This year, I tended to focus on voicing techniques and advanced aural tuning skills:

•  "Tone Building the Piano and Hammer" - Wally Brooks, RPT & Norbert Able.  An excellent 2-session class on the details of hammers, including SEM photos of the wool fibers.  Really amazing stuff.

•  "The Complete Art of Voicing" - Roger Jolly

•  "Aural Tuning" - Dean Rayburn, RPT

•  "Modern Concert Technician" - Arlan Harris, RPT (one of the leading concert techs in NYC)

•  "Fundamentals of Piano Tuning " - Don Manino, RPT

•  "Voicing: Why, Where and How" - Michael Lipnicki, RPT

•  "Tuning Technique"  - Dan Levitan, RPT

•  "Tuning for Stability and Speed" - Steve Brady, RPT

•  "Getting the Most from the Best" - Steve Pearson, RPT

•  6/2009 - Presentation by Ray Chandler of Bösendorfer on the company history and piano regulation tips.

•  5/2009 - Presentation by SF member Frank French, RPT on advanced aural tuning techniques.  Frank outlined some history of the temperaments and then showed his methods for tuning different types of pianos. 

•  3/2009 - Presentation by SF member Zhiwei Huang, RPT on his methods for voicing down hammers of new pianos. 

•  2/2009 - SF PTG Project Piano.  We are working on both a small Cunningham grand and a Baldwin L (grand).  In addition to enhancing our grand repair skills, it is an opportunity to give back to the community (we are donating our time for this project). 

•  3/09 - Repaired pedal lyre and gave the piano a thorough cleaning

•  4/09 - Repaired the many ivory keytops that were loose and broken.  Bedded the keyframe.

•  5/09 - Examined the bass bridge for repair (ended up just using epoxy to resurface the top).  Repaired the soundboard damage. 

•  6/09 - Finished the bass bridge and soundboard repairs.  Rebushed the front rail keybushings. 

•  7/09 through 3/10 - A multitude of fine regulation steps.  As a class, we tend to take our time on these items, discussing the pro's and con's of different techniques.

•  5/10 - We've moved more of our attention to the Baldwin. Most recently we started the process of replacing hammers (including weighing and adding weights) and replacing the balance rail pins. Here I am in the following photo installing new hammers on the action stack. 

•  1/2009 - Presentation by Lothar Thomma on piano and scale design.  Mr. Thomma is a world renowned piano maker, most recently collaborating with Pearl River / Ritmueller.  He discussed his views on inharmonicity, string selection and soundboard material. 

•  5/2008 - Zhiwei Huang gave a program on Aural Techniques for Custom Stretch Tuning.  Zhiwei is a very experienced aural tuner and he presented some advanced techniques he uses for adding stretch in the bass and treble regions of the piano.    

•  4/2008 - Presentation by Ulrich Sauter of Sauter Pianos on Soundboard design and optimization.   Ulrich discussed the tradeoffs made in designing Sauter Pianos and how this effects their sound. 

•  2/24/2008 - Passed the Registered Piano Technician (RPT) Technical Exam which includes General Repairs, Upright Regulation and Grand Regulation (all within strict time limits).  Now I "only" have to pass the Tuning Exam to achieve RPT status.

•  11/2007 - "Comprehensive Voicing" - Nevin Essex, San Francisco PTG. 

•  8/2007 - "Regulation I & II - RPT Exam Preparation", Israel Stein.  Two all-day sessions exploring the optimization of upright and grand regulation, in particular interactions between key dip and strike distance.  The class concluded with full regulation of upright and grand action models.

•  8/2007 - "Voicing", Michael Callahan, San Francisco PTG.

•  6/2007 - 50th Annual PTG Convention in Kansas City, MO.  Four full days of classes, tutorials and hands-on skills workshops.  Plus mini-concerts and evening performances (the Gryphon Trio were the highlight of the week, giving an absolutely stunning performance). 

•  "Tuning Exam Preparation" - Audrey Karabinus, RPT & Paul Brown

•  "Where's the Beat?" - Jack Stebbins, RPT

•  "Baldassin - Sanderson Temperament" - Keith Kopp, RPT

•  "P4 - P5 - P8" - Dan McElrath

•  "Nitpicking the Temperament" - Audrey Karabinus, RPT

•  "Technical Exam Preparation" - Israel Stein, RPT

•  "Vertical Madness" - Leon & Darren Speir

•  "Mason & Hamlin Grand Regulation" - Bruce Clark, Jamie Marks

•  "Tuning - Is Perfect Possible or Necessary?" - Richard Davenport, Mitch Kiel

•  "Come to the Stable" - Jim Kozak

•  "Steinway Grand Damper Regulation" - Eric Schandall

•  "Whole-tone, Open-string Tuning" - David Andersen (the best class of the week!)

•  "Let the Piano Tell You" - Jack Stebbins

•  "Bedding the Grand Piano Keyframe" - Michael Drost

•  4/2007 - "Developing a Tonal Concept: An introduction to understanding the interaction between string scale, soundboard response and hammer design", David Love, San Francisco PTG.

•  2/2007 - "Fast Temperament Setting", Larry Lobel, RPT San Francisco PTG.

•  2/2007 - 2007 California State PTG Convention in San Carlos, CA

•  "Action Geometry & Grand Regulation", full day class - Richard Davenport

•  "Steinway Service for Touch and Tone" - Kent Webb

•  "Replacing the Bridge Cap" - Andre Bolduc

•  "Dampp-Chaser Humidity Control System"

•  "PianoDisc Maintenance"

•  "Yamaha Mark IV Disklavier Maintenance"

•  10/2006 - "Grand Leg Repair and Restoration", Jerry Brookshire, San Francisco PTG Chapter Meeting

•  8/2006 - "History of Keyboard Temperaments", Elizabeth Bell

Going Further Back...

The first years of my "working life" were spent as an engineer and engineering manager.  I graduated from MIT with an engineering degree and went straight to Hewlett Packard (later Agilent Technologies).  While there, I worked on everything from Universal Frequency Counters to DNA Microarrays. 

But when presented with an exit opportunity from Agilent, I decided to try something different.  I've long enjoyed singing and the mechanics of musical instruments.  So, I jumped at the chance for a new career in piano tuning since it lets me combine my engineering skills with my love for music.