Pianotech

Dear Colleagues,

Is there any interest in forming a new Community forum for sharing / answering questions about piano restoration and rebuilding?

As a rebuilder I often find myself wishing I had more dialogue with other piano rebuilders - and that our finest, most experienced rebuilders could be more accessible in a forum. I have been rebuilding for 20 years yet I still have a thousand topics I'd love to discuss with rebuilders - be they more experienced, more scientific, or more creative than myself!

On the other hand, I'm interested in sharing photos, videos and explanations of things I do - even documenting day-by-day photos or videos of my work through an entire piano rebuild. To some piano technicians, such info would not be that useful. But to an up-and-coming piano rebuilder who may be in a place where they don't get to interact with other rebuilders very often, this level of constant detail and discussion could have the potential to really improve their work, avoid errors in rebuilding, and pick up on better techniques, etc.

Over the past few years I've considered posting piano rebuild content for the public on YouTube. However, I'm more interested in sharing within a context of serious students of piano rebuilding - than using YouTube to show the general public my work. It is very easy for some overly-confident people to try to become YouTube-based experts on things and end up in reality struggling with quality. They need a better context of real people to dialogue with and learn from.

What I envision is the possibility of piano rebuilders posting their weekly work on a piano rebuild - or whatever, whenever they care to share - with our community. Then, those interested could ask questions and learn if they need to do so. For experienced regular rebuilders, working every day in a context where they find themselves side by side with other colleagues who document their work and make it available for consideration - could only prove to heighten the overall level of craftsmanship that goes into the average piano rebuild.

As far as any idea that a specific rebuilder has trade secrets they won't want to share. That's fine but I think there is a philosophy that prevails over that. In this profession, we stand to serve our community better when we all on average offer superior work. The musical community benefits from the quality of work, and the PTG community - including the piano rebuilders - benefit from getting a better reputation overall. And at this time, both parties need more of those things. Better quality of service for musicians, and a better reputation of quality rebuilding coming from rebuilders.

Thanks.

PS.

As an example, here is a photo of a new pre-crowned piano rib. Beside it lies a thin ribbon of wood shaving planed off of it. I did this because a hand plane can leave a superior gluing surface than a router blade or sandpaper. It is the ideal gluing surface prep for most wood species because it cleanly slices the wood pores that wood glue finds and wicks into.