NoteWorthy Pianos

05/19/2026

Tuning season is slowing down as summer vacation begins, so I'm taking my extra time to work on a few projects at home! My Mason and Hamlin upright has some very unique keys, in that they don't have modern capstans, but instead have adjustable screws covered by felt. Unfortunately for it, that felt is 121 years old and already had some extra felt added to it to account for the compression. I decided to have an arts and crafts day to cut new felt (gluing and weighing down with regulating key weights) for all the keys, which will make it feel fresh and new!

05/11/2026

The Knabe blog post I promised back in December is finally here!

https://www.noteworthypianos.com/post/1912-knabe-grand

For a long time, I've had a few pianos listed for sale on my website, though they have all been in various stages of rebuilding and repair. With how busy life can move, it's hard to find time to fix pianos at home, especially when the business has been growing so rapidly! Last year I acquired anothe...

05/08/2026

Last month I reinstalled a pedal for a recording tech, which was a fun job! It had broken in two during a move years ago, and my brother-in-law was able to weld it back together - it works great now! Unfortunately, the pedal only came out of the piano because it was in two pieces, but to get it back in required tilting the piano to access the bottom board, remove it, and install the pedal from underneath. His antique piano now has all three pedals functioning!

03/31/2026

I recently helped transfer a piano from a client who was selling her house to a church that was in need of a better piano. This Kimball grand is much newer, more reliable and more repairable than their previous Starr grand, but it does need some work before it's fully ready to be played. I'm working hard this week to get it finished and reinstalled before Easter!

02/14/2026

While chatting with a customer, it came up that her husband's hobby is making toys, pens, and other interesting trinkets. She gave me this beautiful music-themed pen as a gift after completing her tuning! One of my favorite parts of the job is meeting people with all sorts of talents and stories.

01/24/2026

This was recorded on the 1912 Knabe a week ago after tuning! All pianos need to be tuned after moving to a new location, and this grand is no exception. I hope you're all staying warm today and enjoying the snow!

01/23/2026

Last week I had the pleasure of restoring this Kimball Artist Console for a wonderful family in Gallatin! The piano was almost a half-step flat, several keys were sticking, there was rust on the strings and many of the pivot points were dusty and grimy. Of course, I had to start with my favorite task: shaping the hammers, which were very hard and grooved, causing poor tone and volume control. Once that was completed, I cleaned and lubricated the action and key pins, following that up with shining the strings. After reinstalling the action, everything played much more smoothly, but one thing still needed to be addressed: the keys were way too tight, because the felt cushioning the key pins had swelled and was gripping them too tightly. After compressing the front and back felts of all 88 keys, regulation was quite a bit easier, and I was able to level the keys and restore the action to its factory specs. Finally, two rounds of tuning brought the piano to a stable pitch. After seven and a half hours, the piano was fully restored and ready to be played! Thank you so much to the Cantillano family for having me out to service your beautiful piano!

01/01/2026

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I've enjoyed the holiday break to spend time with family, but I've also enjoyed a few projects at home as I get ready for January tunings and projects. Here is one project I completed for Maranantha Baptist Church in Fayyeteville back in November. Their piano had decades worth of dust to be cleaned out, and the hammers were quite hard, creating a bright tone and making volume control quite difficult. With newly shaped hammers, a deep cleaning and a tuning, the piano is ready to play for many more years to come!

12/22/2025

12/18/2025

My 1912 Knabe Grand has been delivered to Society Living in downtown Nashville! They have an incredible music room close to completion and purchased this partially rebuilt grand piano to go in the space. With new carbon composite action parts, it plays beautifully and I'm so excited for people to use it in its new home! A full blog post detailing the work that went into it will come later this month. Thank you so much to Josh Ashby at Wingnut Building & Repair for refinishing the piano, and to It’s A Piano Inc. for moving it safely and efficiently into the new space. Thank you also to Drew Johnson for connecting me with the designers to make this happen!