Todd Since you are just starting out in the field of piano tuning and repair, it might be in your best interest to look into expanding your field to include keyboard repair. With more and more people buying them, there is, and will continue to be, a bid demand for this kind of work. But, as John mentioned, it will require some capital outlay, and of course, some schooling. Repairing keyboards are akin to repairing computers. If you have a "mind" for this kind of work, go for it. One thing you will find out, however, is that repairing keyboards will be very frustrating. Not from your end, but from the customer's end. When keyboards were first becoming popular, Bill Brandom, from Yamaha, gave a program at a chapter meeting. He mentioned that Yamaha invented a new keyboard every 10 months, but that that model would be obsolete in 18 months. Because manufactures make so many models, and each has their own components, it will be difficult to stock all the parts needed. So you'll wind up ordering the?parts from the manufacturer. The problem is, most keyboards have a warrantee of a year or two. The manufacturer is required to?make spare parts only for the duration of the warrantee. After that, they only keep what they have in stock, and once they are gone, they won't make any more. As a result, when a 5 year old keyboard breaks down, the chances of finding the component?that is needed?to make the repair, will be slim to none.??(This is one of the reasons I give customers who are considering buying a keyboard why they should buy an acoustic piano.) So, again, yes it would not be a bad idea to get into keyboard repair. Just be aware of the consequences and pitfalls. Good luck Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT Piano Tuner/Technician Mililani, Oahu, HI 808-349-2943 Author of: The Business of Piano Tuning available from Potter Press www.pianotuning.com -----Original Message----- From: Matthew Todd <toddpianoworks at att.net> To: pianotech at ptg.org Sent: Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:22 pm Subject: [pianotech] Do we do Keyboard repairs?? I have been getting calls of late for repairing keyboards.? Several weeks ago I received a call from a retirement home about a non-functioning damper pedal, and I just got off the phone with a church that has two sticking keys on their keyboard. ? I am just wondering how many of us repair keyboards, and if it's worth getting involved with. TODD PIANO WORKS Matthew Todd, Piano Technician (979) 248-9578 http://www.toddpianoworks.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090317/268fc68b/attachment.html>
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