Category Archives: Update

The Leeds Piano Tuner Resettles

The Leeds piano tuner would like to explain his absence. Over the Christmas break he has relocated to his home to town Sheffield to be nearer relatives – THIS WILL NOT affect his working hours or the possible range of his clientele. He will still be piano tuning in Leeds and Bradford at least four days a week. Traveling long distances is part of his job! In this day and age, a piano tuner seeking to earn a living has to be prepared to travel.

He is currently without internet access except for some monthly data on his iPhone, which allows him to respond to queries. For that reason, this blog will be updated sporadically for the foreseeable future. He has received some emails from other piano tuners who have found some of the posts on this blog informative, which has encouraged him to continue in some form, but until he has a modem and an internet connection, there won’t be as many posts.

 

The Leeds piano tuner’s workshop

Firstly, if you live in Leeds don’t worry – I’ll still be piano tuning at least four or five days a week in Leeds and Bradford – that won’t change. However, I will also be spending at least one day a week in my workshop down in the Ranmoor area of Sheffield, where I will be focusing on piano resoration as well – something I enjoy and find more rewarding than piano tuning. The workshop has been purchased but won’t be in operation until at least August of 2019, as I am in the process of buying the piano restoration tools I need. I also need to make sure it’s well-stocked with woods, polishes, action parts (different sized hammers, flanges, jacks, whippens, screws), piano wire, piano key coverings and so on, all of which will ensure I can carry out a full, thorough and first-rate restoration job on every piano that comes my way.

If you have a Leeds piano you’d like to sell or donate, I will accept pianos on the following brands for a restoration:

  • Bechstein
  • Bluthner
  • Bosendorfer
  • Challen
  • Chappell
  • Ibach
  • Lipp
  • Schiedmayer
  • Steinway
  • Welmar

If you have a high-end piano of a different brand, I might be interested anyway. I am unlikely to accept a overdamped piano and will certainly reject straight-strung pianos (they’re not worth the cost of new parts) even if they have sentimental value to the customer. Piano restoration is a painstaking and arduous job, but when you bring a 100-year-old Bechstein back to life, it is certainly worth the effort!

– Richard, Piano Tuner Leeds.

All work and no play for the Leeds Piano Tuner

What a change of fortune – he’s had so many requests that the piano tuner is almost fully booked. Almost.

If anyone urgently needs the Leeds and Bradford piano tuner, he’ll be available across West Yorkshire on Sunday from 2 PM. Please bear in mind that he also has an extensive customer list in Sheffield and South Yorkshire so isn’t available every day for piano tuning in Leeds. If you’d like to contact him, it would be more convinient to arrange something for the week beginning April the 15th.

In the meantime, keep on practicing your scales and try to keep a Handel on it.

– Piano Tuner Leeds.

New-found fame for the piano tuner

In between tuning pianos and repairing broken hammer flanges, the Leeds and Bradford Piano Tuner has been working hard on writing a debut album with his band Apostles of Chaos. A proggish blend of classic and modern rock, there have been very flattering comparisons to Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Thin Lizzy in the first reviews. Unfortunately no piano-playing appears on the album, it’s all keyboards, guitars, bass, vocals and drums. Next time I’m in the studio a few arpeggiated chords on a perfectly tuned Yamaha U1 will be thrown in for good measure!

If you would be kind enough to support an up and coming band, please give us a ‘thumbs up’ wherever you see us on social media and buy the album at the following links:

Progressive Gears Bandcamp Page – Listen for yourself

Progressive Gears Homepage – Buy the CD

I have a beautiful Victorian piano in the family – would the piano tuner be willing to restring it for me?

The piano tuner has recently received several enqueries from piano owners in the Leeds and Bradord region requesting a complete piano restringing of an antique piano. Now, if a piano is in a condition where it needs a complete restringing then it will almost certainly need other extensive repairs on the action, pinplock and soundboard.

Pianos made before 1950 can be nice to look at, but unlike other instruments such as guitars and violins, pianos unfortunately do not increase in value (or tonal quality) as they age. Even a top tier Bluthner or Bechstein will likely not hold much value today if it was made before 1930, even if it’s in good condition. If you live in the Leeds or Bradford area, then the piano tuner will be willing to tune and tighten the wrest pins for a modest £40. But if you are going down the expensive road of restoring an aged piano, you first need to be aware of the pianos worth. I’m certainly not averse to a partial or complete restoration job, but I need it to be cost effective for the customer before I can start it in good conscience. The price of restringing a piano will be in the range of £1000 to £1200 when taking into account the price of a set of strings and wrest pins plus labour costs – and as I say, it will likely need other extensive repairs to the action and/or the soundboard and pinblock.

One can usually tell a pianos age by certain features that date it from a certain peroid. For example, a typical Victorian piano may be adorned with candle holders on a tapestried front panel or it might have quaint London or swan legs on the front of the keyboard. Failing that, a serial number is often found inside the piano, which enables the Leeds piano tuner to identify the exact year of manufacture.

Piano Tuner Leeds back on the road….

After Saturday’s traumatic incident/accident, my sister Katherine Lidster has kindly lent me her Volkswagen UP (which I’m insured to drive) for the week, so I can get back to piano tuning in Leeds right away. If you need a piano tuning in Leeds urgently, Sunday during the afternoon or evening would work best, or possibly a day next week – I’m fully booked until Sunday now. I won’t be working as much in the mornings for the next few weeks as I’m dedicating a few hours a day to music and improving my general health and fitness. I’m still shaken up after the car crash – I was a split second away from losing my life, but on the other hand it has given me the desire to live adventurously.