Adjusting an old Bluthner action
Plate View
Fitting plate to a new soundboard in a Steinway O
Making a pattern to replace a bridge
Voicing hammers
Piano technicians at Interlochen, the summer of 2010
I am back from tuning pianos at the Interlochen Arts Camp for the summer. It is a wonderful place to spend the summer, but it is nice to be back in Cincinnati. I have accepted the piano technician position at Northern Kentucky University. In addition I have been busy getting the pianos ready at Wright State University, Walnut Hills High School, and the new School for the Creative and Performing Arts.
This winter I went to Reno, NV to train on the installation of Live Performance LX player sytems, and was highly impressed with this player system. I am now a Live Performance LX installer and dealer. The level of realism is unparalleled amongst the other player systems commonly available for retrofit. The first in the Cincinncati area is now available for viewing at Premier Pianos, the exclusive Steinway and Sons dealer.
Pianos for sale will now be listed on the Pianoroll blog . The primary piano I have is a 1943 Baldwin F. This is a seven foot long Baldwin grand. Most of the piano is original. Steinway hammers have been installed.
We have a number of high quality grands available to be rebuilt. These are high quality old grands which deserve to be restored to their original splendor. Currently we have several Baldwin grands, a 5'6" Weber. a 6'3" Knabe, and an 1887 6'7" Bechstein. Please ask if you are interested.
I have created a blog to make more current comments. This website will be updated less frequently. For my thoughts and comments on pianos, please visit The Pianoroll
The sound files which play on this website were recorded on a 1925 Mason and Hamlin RBB. It has been rebuilt by Randy Cox in Los Angeles, retaining the original soundboard. My part was to install the Wapin Bridge. The piano has been retrofit with Wayne Stahnke's Live Performance LX player system. It has an Ampico player in it as well. The soundfiles have been provided by the owner. There are several songs which you can listen to as you browse this site. For examples of other pianos with the Wapin Bridge, please visit the Wapin Bridgewebsite.
New music for the Live Performance LX is available through Zenph studios. Zenph has remastered recordings for Sony. The player piano versions are available to play on the LX exclusively, and are at the Zenph website.
Thank you for visiting my website. I have been in the piano business since 1987 and work as an independent piano technician servicing the Greater Cincinnati, Ohio area. With clients from coast to coast, travel is also a part of my job when requested. I am a Registered Piano Technician in the Piano Technicians Guild, and offer piano service from basic tunings to complete rebuilding.
Some of the institutions that I work for include:
· Aronoff Center for the Arts
· Wright State University
· Cincinnati Public Library
· School for the Creative and Performing Arts
· Walnut Hills High School
· The World Piano Competition
· Wilmington College
· Belterra Casino and Resort
· Grand Victoria Casino
· Matinee Musicale' Series
· Westin Hotel
· Hilton Hotel
· Interlochen Center for the Arts
My rebuilding shop is located at my home in Cincinnati. I offer a full range of rebuilding services: actions, soundboards, pinblocks, strings....whatever a piano requires. I started rebuilding pianos in 1987, and have been doing it continually since. I typically do all of the work myself, and only rebuild a few pianos a year. The highest quality parts are used. Each and every job receives the utmost of care.
The hallmark of the Precision Touch Design system is to make piano actions more evenly balanced. It was developed by David Stanwood as a way of making piano actions perform at a higher level. All of the parts of an action are weighed and measured. Using weights, it is determined whether the dimensions of the action are correct. This is called the "action ratio". Any needed corrections are made. One example would be to move the location of the capstan line. The weights of the hammers and keys are then adjusted so that the action plays evenly throughout. This method is sometimes called "Component Touchweight Balancing". It is the highest standard of keybalancing available to the piano technician today. A basic PTD uses only keyleads to balance the action. Performance options use adjustable wippen springs, or magnets.
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The Wapin Bridge is a recent invention. It is a simple idea. The traditional arrangement of bridge pins on a piano provides too strong of an attachment of the string to the bridge. The front bridge pin is slanted, which slightly dampens the string. Some energy in the string is wasted as "attack noise", and the string cannot vibrate as freely as it might. Wapin Bridge changes the front, or speaking, bridge pin to a vertical position. An additional bridge pin is installed behind the vertical pin, to trap the string down to the bridge. The result is that the string is slightly decoupled from the bridge. The piano sounds better! Some describe the effect of Wapin as "opening up" the sound. There is typically greater clarity, projection, and sustain.
Many people enjoy having a player unit added to their piano. Modern player systems play with expression, are reliable, and have a wide variety of music available. I have installed both Pianodisc and QRS Pianomation. These systems can also be installed on just about any modern piano. Many pianos in the area have Baldwin Concertmaster systems. These were QRS systems with a Baldwin control head. I offer continued service and upgrades to these existing units.
The Live Performance LX is the newest system, and has the highest quality playback. It is generally intended to be put in grand pianos exclusively. The LX is quite impressive, and easily the best retrofit system on the market. Please contact me to hear an example of this fine system.
Piano tuning is the primary service performed in the home or studio. It is often described as part art and part science. I originally learned to tune pianos aurally, but have often used an electronic tuning device over the past ten years. Electronic devices are consistent, and help many tuners achieve better results than what they could otherwise. The past couple of years I have shifted back to primarily tuning using aural methods. We all get in habits and develop confidence based on practice. I have determined that I wish my habits to be based on aural methods. My method of tuning is what has been called "whole tone" tuning. It involves listening to all of the partials of a note and choosing the best fit. Most often I am trying to match pure twelfths, or an octave and a fifth. However, I can tune in many different styles, and am happy to accommodate preferences. I offer the Equal Beating Victorian Temperment as a Well Temperment.
In order to make a piano sound its best, voicing and regulation are needed in addition to tuning. In fact, many times what makes a piano sound out of tune is the voicing of the instrument. Regulation involves adjusting the action parts to make them sit in the correct position, and move at the right time. Voicing involves adjusting the hammers and strings so that the tone of the instrument is more satisfying. What works well is to schedule an entire day. In most cases, I can make considerable improvement in that time.
Tuning only - Buy Now
Inspection - Buy Now
Contact us:
email: petersrpt_gmail.com
telephone: 513-515-0973
To view my calendar, please click on the following link. This is a trial run, and is only here to help you get an idea of when I might be available.
Calendar
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