Photo Journals

 Dear Technicians - Photo journals are a wonderful way to keep your restoration customers up-to-date with the progress being made on their pianos while their instrument is in the shop. A photo journal is a snap to put together and send out in PDF format to the owner. With the owner's permission, the journal also makes excellent advertising for your business if added to your website - showing the scope of your services to visitors and adding interesting content that will keep people coming back to check out new additions.

Following are a few examples of photo journals which I have put together recently to give you an idea of what is possible. All you need to get started yourself is a camera at the ready in your shop, and the willingness to spend a bit of time at your computer putting an illustrated narrative together.  

Steinbach & Dreher Upright Upright (circa 1905) 

The current project in the shop. This piano spent approximately 30 years in an abandoned farm house and is now in the shop for a makeover. New pinblock panels, pins and strings, plus new hammers, dampers, keytops, etc., etc. are on the to-do list for this instrument. New photo sets will be added as we go.

 Photo Set #1 

Walworth Upright (circa 1915)

This piano presented a real challenge for us. The current owner had a deep emotional attachment to the instrument - his mother had not only learned to play on it but had signed her name on the cast iron plate when she was a little girl. It had been stored, however, for a decade or so in his factory, and the factory mice had made it their home. Yikes!  

Photo Set # 1                      Photo Set # 7                      Photo Set # 13

Photo Set # 2                      Photo Set # 8                      Photo Set # 14

Photo Set # 3                      Photo Set # 9                      Photo Set # 15

Photo Set # 4                      Photo Set # 10                    Photo Set # 16

Photo Set # 5                      Photo Set # 11                    Photo Set # 17

Photo Set # 6                      Photo Set # 12

Hamilton Grand (circa 2005) 

A pinblock replacement job for a nearly new grand. Pins were somewhat loose - my opinion was that the drill bit was a bit dull when the block was drilled and ran hot. I recommended new pins, but the owner (on the advise of another technician) insisted on a new pinblock. The manufacturer bent over backwards to satisfy the customer, and went ahead with the installation of a new block. With the mirror finish, I held my breath the entire time the piano was in the shop! 

Photo Set # 1                      Photo Set # 2                      Photo Set # 3

Photo Set # 4                      Photo Set # 5

Cable Upright (circa 1905) 

A beautiful vintage upright which needed refinishing and extensive work on the action, including a replacement of the original brass rails. 

Photo Set # 1                      Photo Set # 2                     Photo Set # 3

Photo Set # 4                      Photo Set # 5                     

Music Rack and Leg Repair 

This job was sent to us by an out-of-state technician. A piano was damaged by a moving company, and the job was more than the technician wanted to tackle on his own. The repairs to the leg were pretty straight forward, but the music rack was snapped in half from top to bottom, and presented quite a challenge to fix.

Photo Set # 1                      Photo Set # 2                     

Washburn Upright (circa 1906) 

A beautiful family instrument which was a joy to work on. Solidly built with a wonderful tone and touch. A new finish, hammers, dampers, keytops, etc. brought this beauty back to life.                     

Photo Set # 1                      Photo Set # 2                  Photo Set # 3

Steinway Upright (circa 1910)

A project which is temporarily on hold (it belongs to us) while other pianos belonging to customers are attended to.  A new pinblock is to be installed - the original pinblock has been removed (after the case was completely dismantled).  Looking forwards to getting back to work on it, but as you will see it will be quite a lot of work before the piano is back together again!

Photo Set # 1                      Photo Set # 2                      Photo Set # 3

Photo Set # 4                      Photo Set # 5