Piano Sales

I sell rebuilt pianos by Steinway and Mason & Hamlin, occasionally others.  I do this on a small scale, typically offering about one piano a year. I especially like working on these spec pianos because i can do exactly what I think the piano needs; I can be an advocate for the piano.

Piano Tuning

I have a small private tuning clientele.  I am still accepting new clients, but at this stage in my career, I am more interested in doing rebuilding work.  I don't accept tunings outside of the Ithaca NY area.  If you'd like to have me tune your piano, call me and we'll talk.

Piano Rebuilding

I do all kinds of rebuilding work.  I have worked on many, many Steinway pianos, but I also enjoy working on some of the other fine pianos produced since the mid nineteenth century.

This early modern piano has a full cast iron plate, but it's essentially straight strung like pre-Steinway pianos.  It's a fascinating dead end in the development of the piano.  It came to us with the soundboard and pinblock already replaced, but I had to rebuild the action and replace the damper action.  The musicians really love this one.

I bought this piano as a spec project.  I was able to rebuild it from top to bottom exactly as I think it should be.  It was purchased by a local church, and I'm very gratified that they had the confidence in me to work with me in the purchasing process, which took over a year.  It has made a huge difference in the musical life of this congregation.

No one ever made a better upright than Steinway.  But the action on some of these pianos was problematic, and replacement parts were expensive and not as high quality as they should be. Now it's possible to install an entirely new action that's excellent quality, making it economically practical to rebuild these pianos just like we rebuild grands.

In case you are unfamiliar with the name, Mason & Hamlin is the other great American piano.  They typically have a dark, rich, elegant sound that goes on and on.  I got to rebuild this one for Cornell, and it was a treat.  The old M&H concert grands are not too common and I'm lucky to have worked on even one in my career.

This piano is similar to a Pleyel Chopin owned and is known to have written some of the mazurkas on.  It has an early version of the action that's in today's upright pianos, but with some challenging differences.  I love the design and the veneer is a super rare plum pudding mahogany.  I've already done some work on this, and I'm supervising a group of grad students as they do more.

This was a presentation of the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies.  Over fifty performers, scholars, and piano  makers from around the world met for five days in Ithaca.  Sixteen different pianos were used, and I had to tune most of them; in addition I prepared four nineteenth century pianos for use during the conference.  The photo shows four of the pianos used, backstage at Cornell's Schwartz Center.