Repairs & Restoration

Piano Service & Repair in Your Home or the Shop

Most routine piano service or repair work can be done in the home, however major replacement work such as re-pinning and restringing, falls under the piano restoration category, and should be performed in a fully equipped piano repair shop, which we have!

Routine piano service/repair work includes repairing broken action parts such as hammer shanks, butts, wippens, damper levers and flanges. Individual piano key or keytop repairs can be done in your home. A full replacement set of piano keytops requires your piano keys be taken to our shop.

Cleaning the piano action and inside case are frequently overlooked repairs and service items that are easily done in your home. We travel with equipment for most in home repairs, from spot replacement of parts to string repair. Most repair work on newer pianos stems from abuse or poor manufacturing

Piano Repair: Common Problems

Sticky Keys

Lots of 'little' things cause sticky keys and most often these keys can be fixed with a little adjusting of the key felt the balance pin. Sometimes 'sticky keys' are caused by broken parts which need to be repaired or replaced. Broken parts are also often repaired in the home for a minimal expense.

Noises that shouldn't be there

Noises are often caused by screws being loose, hammers loose, damper wire pressing on the string and an occassional buzzing caused by something near the piano thad just needs to be moved. Our technicians work together with clients to search and locate the causes for these noises, then discuss what needs to be done to eliminate them.

Pedals that don't work well or are squeaking

Pedal parts wear out and often replacing leathers, tightening or replacing screws and felts will often correct most pedal problems.

Dusty soundboards needing cleaning

We are often asked to clean the soundboards of grand piano because they are so dusty. This job normally takes between 1 and 1 1/2 hours and we have special tools that remove dust and polish the soundboard close to 'like new' condition.

Broken strings needing to be replaced

Strings almost never break on newer or recently restrung pianos because new piano wire is extremely elastic. On older pianos, if the strings have become brittle with age, they are more likely to break—even if the change is tension is very slight. However, strings can and do break sometimes for no apparent reason at all. Should a plain steel string break during a tuning, we can usually replace it "on the spot."

Piano Regulation

Piano regulation is not really a repair. It is the adjustment of the mechanical moving parts of the piano to insure an even touch, feel, and tone. Although, not a piano repair, it is listed here as we frequently receive inquiries about the “feel of the piano”.

Piano Regulation is the process of adjusting the piano’s mechanical components (the action), including the keys, hammers, dampers, and all the parts in between, to compensate for wear, for compacting of cloth and leather, and the dimensional changes in the wood caused by humidity fluctuations.

Piano action regulation can be an ideal solution if you are not happy with the feel, playability, or response of your piano.

Voicing

Again, voicing is not really a repair. It is the adjustment of the hammer hardness, to insure an even tone throughout the piano.

Voicing includes finely adjusting each hammer’s felt to produce the best possible tone (or voice). In some cases, hammers are too hard, which produces a very bright sound. Hammers that are too soft will produce an overly mellow tone. Voicing can be performed in either direction depending on the desired result. We routinely voice hammers for clients based on their preferences. That is, whether you want a brighter sound or you want a more mellow tone, it can be achieved through voicing.

Touchweight of the piano is a frequently expressed concern of our clients. Not really a repair, but more of a modification, we can help.

Restoration

Restoring a fine, old piano to bring back to life its very HEART AND SOUL is our PASSION at Vincitore’s. Vincitore’s, Hudson Valley Piano Center has a complete rebuilding shop for performing more thorough maintenance to an older instrument from minor repairs to complete restringing, rebuilding, refinishing… just about any other “re-” a piano could need to make it young again