Atlanta Piano Tuner Piano Service Information Page
We are a full service piano tuning, piano repair, piano refinishing and
piano rebuilding company serving Atlanta and surrounding counties for
more than four decades... including: Atlanta, metro Atlanta, Cobb
County, Fulton County, Dekalb County, Gwinnett County, Henry County,
Hall County, Rockdale County, Barrow County and Cherokee County.
We travel up to a fifty mile radius from Atlanta at no charge, and
outside the radius (within the state proper) there is a surcharge of
.65cents/ mile computed one-way only. Thank you!
Piano Rebuilding is something at Atlanta
Piano Tuner that we love about being in the piano business. We
derive a strong sense of accomplishment from the quality restoration of
a vintage piano, whether upright piano or grand piano. We are also
one of the few companies in the southeast United States that specializes
in player pianos as well. Old, dark, forbidding aesthetics melt
away to reveal warm, rich tones of walnut, rosewood, mahogany, tiger
oak, maple and other beautiful rare wood veneers. Crusty sluggish
mechanisms spring to new life remembered decades ago when your piano was
new. Your piano can return to its old glory under our fastidious
care. Give your piano its best opportunity to show its resiliency,
and its tribute to the piano craftsmen of old who took extreme pride in
their craft. We strive to the same code and welcome the
opportunity to revive your piano rebuilding it.
Piano rebuilding is when we take your piano
in to our repair shop, removing all worn components to replace or repair
where needed. We bring your piano back to like new functionality,
and its appearance is restored to like new, preserving the originality
that was initially visualized by your piano's original piano craftsmen.
Piano rebuilding means just that... piano REBUILDING. see more on
piano
rebuilding
Where no oxen are the stall is clean, but much
increase comes by the strength of the ox...
We offer
expertly trained master piano craftsmen with combined 35,000+ piano
tunings experience. Whether you are beginning to play the
piano or are an accomplished pianist, we guarantee your satisfaction.
We focus on extending ultimate service, coupled with an eye for value
when it comes to piano tuning. We offer simple fee one-time
service, to extended service warranties that cover the piano's tuning as
well as the thousands of mechanical components' (action, piano wires,
plate, soundboard, regulations and damper/ pedal trap-work) adjustments.
If you are looking for comprehensive care for your piano, Atlanta Piano
Tuner (the original) is your answer. Atlanta Piano Tuner tunes
pianos with our primary concern regarding ministering to the spirit of
the player as they play. see more on
piano
tuning
Yamaha GH1 Baby Grand Piano.
Rebuilt and delivered in perfect tune
Piano Repair covers a range of applications
relating to piano service. Typically, when piano repair is
requested it pertains more to the mechanisms in the piano (keys, keybed,
the action with 100's of moving parts, damper/pedal trap-work), or the
case/ facade of the piano and the occasional dents and dings that occur
to the finish or exterior. Utilize free phone consultations to
allow us to assist you with your decision making process when you are
determining what your piano's needs are and what services we may offer.
With our extensive experience in repairing vintage/antique pianos, if we
can't repair it... it can not be repaired.
Many times there are trade secrets that can
be employed to your piano's benefit if you do not want to rebuild a
piano to keep it functional until piano refurbishment or piano
rebuilding are possible. The important thing to remember here is
to act expeditiously and not allow a broken or malfunctioning component
to damage another component. Many expensive repairs can be avoided
with regularly scheduled maintenance not only in regard to piano tuning,
but also in regard to your piano's valuable mechanisms as well.
Since piano repair is a mission for us that furthers the cause of music,
it is something we take seriously. see more on
piano
repair
Upright piano repair
Grand Piano
The inimitable Grand Piano is the standard of acoustic pianos. Beauty
in functionality, beauty when it's sitting quietly in a room. My strong
recommendation to the person with the desire or means to treat
themselves to the best is to settle for nothing less. The repetition
lever in the action of a grand piano sets it apart from any
upright/vertical piano ever made. This lever catches a portion of the
grand piano's action, enabling extremely fast (and controlled)
repetition of the notes. While this is not a 'make it or break it'
scenario for most piano players, what will translate to every one
regardless of expertise or experience in playing, is t
hat
this is the most accurate reproduction of the touch used to play
a piano. Sostenuto capability is another feature of better quality
grand pianos. This allows a piano player to only sustain a select
number of notes simultaneously without sustaining all the rest; this is
useful in complex compositions. The grand piano is also the most
aesthetically appealing piano, but they do have a tendency to 'take
over' a smaller room.
I've said this before, and I'll say it again, There are many fine
quality upright, studio, console and spinet pianos that will pass the
touch test of the discriminating player. Grand pianos are simply the
best, and I mean nothing else to be inferred here. The addition of a
piano-types segment merely answers a question posed many times over in
my travels as a piano man.
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Square Grand Piano
Square Grand Pianos are the grandfathers of the modern piano. You know
what is amazing about pianos? In this era of human history of
technological advances like mechanization, for over one hundred years
the piano stands virtually alone being made the same way. The first
pianos were an advance technologically from harpsichords. Harpsichords,
while they are a keyboard instrument (Bach primarily played
harpsichords), can not impart the control over 'dynamic range' that a
piano offers. Bartolommeo Cristofori (1655-1731) introduced the
Piano-Forte (we've since shortened the name to piano) exhibiting an '
escapement
mechanism' that forever revolutionized music. The piano
emulates/reproduces the firm to soft touch of the player from forte/loud
sound to piano/soft sound. Whereas the harpsichord plucked the wire,
the escapement mechanism offered nearly infinite control over how loudly
or softly the piano's wires were struck. Hence the trivia answer that
the piano is not a string instrument, but is a percussion instrument.
Did you know that?
The first, 'primitive' pianos were very short lived. Leather wrapped
hammers wore out in a few years. Leather hinges in the mechanism
suffered the same fate. Long and gangly mechanical parts were extremely
difficult or impossible to adjust (I know, I've rebuilt many
'squares'). Engineering shortfalls left inherent limitations in the
first pianos.
The next era, the Victorian era, saw engineering step up with mechanisms
that were superior to the primitive piano. While the mechanisms still
needed some enhancements (I've also rebuilt a fair number of these),
this era's piano was the first piano with enough stability to support
the nearly twenty tons of tension exerted on the piano's structure at
A435 (the first standard pitch). Leather wrapped hammers gave way to
felt padded hammers. Archaic mechanisms were replaced with adjustable
mechanisms utilizing metal hinge pins (or action 'centers') inserted
into felt bushings. It is also fascinating to watch the piano's history
and see how engineering as a science has evolved as principles of nature
were noticed, studied and then an advancement was employed.
A few decades before the turn of the century we see the square grand
piano lose prominence in the industry and finally slip into obsolescence
as a new era (and the modern piano) came on the scene.
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Upright Piano
Studio (48" measured vertically), and Upright Pianos (51" vertically and
higher) are quite similar overall. Both types of piano have direct blow
actions. This type of action receives a direct strike from a piano key
that extends under the piano's action mechanism. The studio piano and
upright piano (also called vertical) have the longest key length of any
vertical class piano. This translates to the best control over the
dynamic range of any class of piano except the grand piano. These
verticals also boast the greatest structural integrity, superior in
strength to console and spinet pianos, as well as longer piano wire
lengths. The result of longer wires, and stronger frame produces
greater piano tuning stability and increased resonance. Also in the
rare vintage upright piano one may find the inclusion of a sostenuto
rail. Sostenuto functions won't mean much to a novice player, but for
complex musical compositions sostenuto is a tremendous enhancement for
playing a piano.
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Studio Piano
Console Piano
Console pianos, performance-wise, are preferable to own over spinet
pianos in that these are the smallest class of piano that contain a
'direct blow' action mechanism. In layman's terms a direct blow action
imparts greater control to the piano player over a piano's dynamic
range. Dynamic range is another way of expressing the balancing between
loud playing and soft playing from which piano's derived their name.
Originally pianos were call Piano-forte, which translates from Latin
into soft-loud. Console pianos also have more resonant, longer wires
than spinet pianos (anywhere from 4" and up). One item that is
noteworthy regarding both spinet and some console pianos is the
existence a decorative leg technically referred to as a 'detached'
leg. This references the leg's detachment from the lower part of the
piano's case. This leg provides no lateral movement stability to the
piano, and many times if I assess the risk to the leg to be enough in
the course of moving these pianos, I'll remove these legs prior to
moving.
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Spinet Piano
Spinet pianos are most commonly characterized by their size. They range
in height from around 33" to nearly 40". In technical terminology they
are 'drop-action' pianos or more correctly indirect blow (action style)
pianos. The piano key pulls a 'sticker' (strip of wood) that provides
an indirect strike to the string via the action's components. They may
be small in stature, but are complete pianos providing complex
escapement action mechanisms, key lengths from just under a foot to
nearly a foot and a half, an 'over-strung' type scale design to the
piano wires, and lastly (but certainly not least) over fifteen tons of
tension on the structure of the piano at A440. Higher grade spinet
pianos boast comparable tuning stability to larger class pianos, with
little loss of sound resonance. A downside to spinet pianos (the lower
quality ones) is inherent dissonance in the bass wires, and diminished
resonance in the treble wires. Some also argue that because of the
shorter key length, there is diminished dynamic range capability, a
characteristic very important to define an acoustic piano from what is
available electronically. In comparison to an electronic keyboard,
there is no similarity technically other than that they both have keys.
By far, most informed piano teachers will strongly recommend a spinet
over an electronic keyboard if an individual's primary concern is
balancing between budget and not compromising what an acoustic piano can
provide to a novice player. Because they are the smallest of pianos,
they are typically more affordable to own, not to mention easier to
move. If you have limited living conditions (space challenged), or you
move frequently, this might be your best choice for an acoustic piano.
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Pump Organ
Pump Organs still remain as an old favorite style of organ, even though
their more modern (electronic) sisters have been replaced by the digital
keyboard... at least for the residential owner. I am also certain that
150 years ago no one thought of pump organs in terms of aerobic
machines, but if you currently own or have ever played one you know
exactly what I mean.
Pump organs utilize all pneumatic functions to produce sound and
vibrato. Ingenious minds invented interesting additions like 'octave
coupling' (where with the pull of a knob you get five to ten extra
fingers... lol). Pump organs are exquisite pieces aesthetically, and
working properly can be a lot of fun to play. Other ingenious additions
to a pump organ's functions a
re vibrato
(what gives Susan Boyle her appeal), and methods of simulating horns or
woodwinds through the reed system, swells to increase volume,
multitudinous ways (a lot) to uniquely manufacture the stop panels (I've
rebuilt dozens of pump organs and never cease to be amazed at this
factoid) and the most intricately hand carved cabinetry you'll ever see
in a piece of furniture. These pieces are a must have for any antique
collector to complete a collection.
If you traveled back in time to this country's foundational years where
most church pastors were itinerate, you'd see them traveling with their
trusty pump organ strapped to the back of their buggy as they traversed
the countryside. If you have a pump organ, do you know its history?
I'd love to hear some stories...
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New York Piano Tuner
Piano Tuning, Repair, Appraisal, Antique pianos restoration. Free
repair estimates. Serving New York City, New Jersey, Connecticut, Long
Island, Westchester.
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