Piano workshop · Aarhus · Since 2003
Pianos tuned by ear in your home, and rebuilt by hand in the workshop.
What the workshop does
- Tuning In your home, once or twice a year, with small repairs on the same visit. Prices and travel
- Restoration Uprights and grands brought back in the workshop, from new hammers to a new soundboard. What each stage costs
- Restored pianos Three to six at a time in the workshop, each one finished here and ready to play. The pianos for sale
Kept in stock at the workshop
- Hammer felt in three weights
- Music wire in 18 gauges
- Bass strings wound to order
- Damper felt, wedge and flat
- Key bushing cloth
- Tuning pins in five sizes
- Bone coloured keytops
- Action centre pins
- Shellac for French polish
- Brass castors
How a tuning goes
Ninety Minutes, One Note at a Time
A tuning is a method, not a guess, and it goes the same way every time.
- Listen before touching anything.
Play through the piano, note by note, and hear how far it has drifted and where.
- Set one octave in the middle.
From a fork at A 440, every note in that octave is set against the others by ear.
- Tune outwards from it.
Up to the treble and down to the bass, each note checked against the ones already set.
- Fix the small things on the same visit.
A sticking key, a buzzing damper, a broken string, if there is time and the part is in the bag.
Prices, pitch raises and repairs are on the tuning page.
On the bench
A Restoration Takes Months, Not Weeks
Most of the pianos in the workshop came out of family homes, and most of them were worth saving.
A restoration starts with a visit and a written estimate, and the piano only comes to the workshop once you have agreed to it. Some need new hammers and a regulation; some need a new soundboard and three months on the bench. The restoration page explains what each stage involves and what it costs.
The bass strings for every restoration are wound here, on a lathe from 1964 that hums at almost exactly F sharp below middle C, so the workshop is never entirely quiet.
A note about July
Closed for the Summer Holiday
Every July we close for three weeks, like most of Denmark. The workshop goes quiet, the pianos settle, and I try not to listen too closely to the radio. If your piano needs tuning before a summer party, book in May. If it can wait, wait until September, when the heating is not yet on and the wood has had the summer to settle.
Ida