Rehoboth Piano Services

01/16/2024

I finished tuning for the spring semester at VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) last Thursday. 50 pianos of all sizes, shapes, and health conditions. Thanks to Melissa Hawks for helping with the tuning. It’s a month long marathon. Back to regular tuning. Whew!

10/23/2023

I just returned from Kanasa City, KS where I participated in a 3-day class, Grand Regulation in 37 Steps. The class was about how to get all the little parts in a grand piano to work together so that the piano plays well. Lots of hands on learning. A great class! The pictures are of the piano I worked on and a graduation picture with the instructors.

09/26/2023

Mom and daughter duet. This is why I tune pianos!

04/25/2023

I just read a Facebook post where a fellow female piano technician was tuning a piano when the owner, a man, begin to make sexual advances towards her and to make inappropriate comments. I am angry and upset for her. This could have been a male technician having a female customer coming on to him; female coming on to female, male coming onto male.

Please! Be respectful to the technician tuning your piano. They are not there for your sexual, emotional, or psychological pleasures; they are there to tune your piano. Respect!!! No sexual advances, no rude comments, no insinuations....nothing. Be kind and respectful! Enough said....respect!

01/23/2023

It’s been forever since I’ve posted here. Only because I’ve been super busy tuning pianos. I am open for business and would love to come meet you and tune your piano. Contact me for an appointment!

02/07/2022

Requests for piano tunings are starting to come in after a January lull. It’s nice to be tuning again. How is your piano sounding this winter?

11/01/2021

Please be aware that some of the pictures and ads on Rehoboth Piano Services page are not mine. Especially the picture of the young lady with the tattoos. Not really my style.😁 I need to do some research in how to make this page my own. Meanwhile, go play your piano. It's lonely!

11/01/2021

Within the last 1 1/2 weeks I have tuned three pianos with evidence of mice having used the piano as a home. A nest (very cozy looking), droppings, urine stains, and bugs that say that there are probably dead mice in the piano (I didn't go looking).

Fall and mice go together. Mice are looking for a warm spot to spend the winter. What better place than a piano. The bottom of the piano offers a nice open space for their nest, and they have felt and wood to chew on to use to help build their nest.

Watch for evidence of mice in your piano. You can clean up the mess yourself (be brave!). Wear rubber gloves, a mask, and clothes that be washed immediately after cleaning your piano. Remove the nest and put it in the garbage. Vacuum out the insides of the piano, then wipe out the insides with a bleach/water mixture.

Mice carry many diseases that can be passed on to humans, so please take HZMAT precautions.

Until you have seen the evidence of mice having been in your piano you can't know how gross the leftovers can be and how embarrassing it is when your piano technician opens up the piano and announces, "what a beautiful mouse nest!".

So, this is your Fall reminder. Keep an eye out for mice in your piano. It's just another way of caring for your piano.

05/20/2021

What does it mean when your piano technician says that "the pitch needs to be raised on your piano"?

You've decided to have your piano tuned because a) it sounds terrible, b) it's been years since it's been tuned, c) your grandson can't play his trumpet in tune with the piano while you play along...I could go on, but the bottom line is that your piano has gone super flat or low in pitch. This happens because your piano is a living, breathing thing. It is made of many types of woods and metals, all which are affected by weather, humidity, where it sits in your house, age, and care. Eventually, most piano will end up flat, though at times they'll go sharp, then flat, then sharp, then flat, fluctuating by the minute. The piano ends up very out of tune, which causes you to suddenly sit up one day and say, "it's time to tune this piano!"

So, raising the pitch on a piano means bringing the piano up to (or sometimes down to) the pitch or string tension it was built to hold. For most modern pianos that is a tuning based around A440, the A above middle C vibrating at 440 beats a second (440 hertz). When your piano is tuned to pitches based on A440 it is going to be a happy piano because it is at the correct string and body tension. It will sound brighter and better, and, once the piano is fully tuned, it will be in tune and your grandson can play his trumpet along with the piano.

What this means for the technician is more time spent at the piano pulling the strings up to the correct tension (pulling the strings up to pitch), then going back and tuning the piano one to two more times to get those strings to stay where they need to stay. You will find that the cost is more to have your piano brought up to pitch. That is because the technician is spending more time with your piano.

The good news is that you can prevent your piano having to be pulled up to pitch by having it tuned every 6 months or so. This keeps the strings from moving so far away from a tuning based on A440. The technician only has to tune the piano to A440 and gets to avoid the pulling up in pitch work.

Keep your piano tuned for its health and for your playing enjoyment. And think how great your grandson's trumpet playing will sound playing alongside your in tune piano!

10/24/2020

My project for this summer was working on a Bechstein C Grand Piano (7"6"). This piano was built in Berlin in 1913. The piano was in good shape for being 107 years old, having been shipped to American, and finally ending up in a used piano store in New York where the current owner purchased the piano. The piano was then transported to Alberta, Virginia.

One of the challenges of tuning this piano was that the strings were old and kept breaking, especially in the bass. I replaced 3 bass strings and 1 treble string. Getting the strings to go through parts that were old and gunky (see pictures) kept me busy. The piano has been tuned and the new strings are on, ready for the owner to enjoy playing again.

A bit of history on Bechstein pianos. Bechstein was founded in 1853 by Carl Bechstein in Berlin. Bechstein is considered to be one of the best brands of pianos. Their consistency in quality and ability to continue being in business after having had factories bombed during WWI and WWII, marks them as being persistent in producing pianos for concert and everyday enjoyment. Bechstein also produces pianos now under the brand names of Hoffmann and Zimmermann.

09/18/2020

Attention church music directors! Introducing a special COVID rate to tune your church sanctuary piano. Think about it. Your church piano, that you most likely are using for live streaming, has been sitting in the sanctuary since March, unused until your church started live streaming services. That piano needs tuning! Contact me here at Facebook, [email protected], or 804-712-1762 to set up a tuning appointment. Church members, please pass this on to your music director. Everyone stay safe!

Rehoboth Piano Services offers outstanding piano servicing to all brands and styles of pianos to customers in the Petersburg/Richmond, Virginia area.

06/04/2020

With the opening of Phase 2, I feel it’s safe for me to begin tuning again with certain guidelines. Thus Rehoboth Piano Services is open for business!