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Why Rebuild Your Piano?
Why should I restore or rebuild my piano— isn’t a new piano better? 
Piano restoration allows you to control the way your piano sounds
When you choose to restore your piano, you and your rebuilder, collaboratively develop the definitions of the restoration. You personally define how you want your piano to look, sound and feel. With the right rebuilder, a piano restoration offers a level of customization no new showroom piano at any price can match.
Restoration gives you access to a one-on-one musical relationship with an expert in piano sound
A fine piano rebuilder is a person who considers the creation of beautiful piano tone a calling and a way of life. He will be committed both to the instrument and the client relationship long after the piano has been delivered.
In addition, a fine rebuilder will be eager to service the restored piano. He knows that the piano will only reach its potential, if the sound is patiently honed over a period of years by someone who really knows that particular instrument. He also knows that the most successful piano restorations are always guided by an engaged and inquisitive client, so he will encourage his client’s questions and involvement.
Personal one-to-one commitment comes with a fine piano restoration. It is one of the strongest reasons to have your piano restored rather than purchasing a new “spec” piano.
Restoration is a good value
A piano restoration can create an outstanding piano at one-half to one-third the price of a new Steinway or Fazioli grand piano.
For the price of a reasonable Asian import, you could have could have a restored piano whose tone surpasses the tone of the vast majority of new showroom Steinways.
Restoration allows you to custom design a piano whose sound is tailored to a particular space, venue, or type of music
Many people don’t realize that the tonal aesthetic of any new piano, Steinway or any other make, is defined by the tonal power needed to penetrate a large concert hall. But what if your instrument is intended to be a chamber instrument? What if you will only play and hear your instrument in an intimate setting? What if the music you love to play sounds better on a “sweeter” sounding instrument? Taming the default tonal power of any new piano can be very challenging in many performance or home settings.
With a fine piano restoration, the power and tone of the instrument can be tailored to suite your performance preferences. The soundboard, voicing, regulation and the tuning can be tailored to a specific venue and type of music.
Whether your venue is a large concert hall, a smaller concert hall, chamber space, or home; whether you play solo, with instrumentalists or with singers, or at home for yourself; the sound of your restored piano can be tailored for that use. In the right rebuilder’s hands, any Steinway, Mason& Hamlin, Bosendorfer, Yamaha, Chickering, Knabe, Baldwin, Schimmel or any other make, can be customized to any performance specification.
Restoration allows you to make a family heirloom your own
Rebuilding your piano allows you to keep your heirloom piano in the family. With a fine piano rebuild, you keep the piano’s sentimental connection, but define that heirloom musically and visually according to your own needs.
Restoration allows you to define the "look" of your piano
Piano restoration often includes refinishing. Refinishing allows you to define how you want the piano to look, rather than being forced to accept styles that are “easy for a piano dealer to sell.” For example, it can look traditional, less-formal, or jazzy.
In my own piano rebuilds I am often requested to re-design the piano to fit a particular living space. My refinished cases can be re-designed to compliment your own aesthetic sense, and can also be detailed so that the piano does not visually overwhelm the room its resides in. Colors, carefully and artistically custom mixed can also be used to soften the sometimes severe nature of a piano case.
Restoration lets you experiment with and define the touch of your instrument
A restored piano offers you customized touch design, while a new piano forces you to accommodate your technique to a commercially defined “median” touch.
As an action specialist, touch design (non Stanwood) is included in my piano restorations. The design process customizes the touch and regulation parameters or your restored piano to your personal requirements.
In addition, piano restoration can address the needs of an aging pianist. Sometimes as pianists age, they can find the heavy actions of their youth becoming increasingly unmanageable or physically harmful. When redesigning an action for a restoration or rebuild, I often lighten heavy piano actions, or more precisely, I often correct the inertia of the action. This not only gives pianists physical relief, but allows them to continue enjoying their piano through their retirement. As a bonus many pianists find that their redesigned piano action gives them unexpected technical control of the keyboard.
My restorations allow you to create a piano which can tolerate challenging climate conditions
The vast majority of new piano manufacturers construct their piano soundboards using a process which has a history, especially in the Boston area, of premature failure. These soundboards can fail in anywhere from 2 to 20 short years. Some even fail before they have left the showroom floor.
These new piano soundboard failures are completely unnecessary.
My own soundboards employ a crowning process which avoids structural failures by respecting the limits of wood as a natural substance. I have the analytic tools, fabrication techniques, musicianship and passion to repeatedly and predictably design and build singing tone into any restored piano. See Soundboard Design and Fabrication
As well, I can design and fabricate action systems which can tolerate climate challenges of outdoor summer concert or music camp venues.