Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners — Tasks

Task statements

• Assemble and install new pipe organs and pianos in buildings.
• Deliver pianos to purchasers or to locations of their use.
• Adjust string tensions to tune instruments, using hand tools and electronic tuning devices.
• Compare instrument pitches with tuning tool pitches to tune instruments.
• Play instruments to evaluate their sound quality and to locate any defects.
• Disassemble instruments and parts for repair and adjustment.
• Repair or replace musical instrument parts and components, such as strings, bridges, felts, and keys, using hand and power tools.
• Reassemble instruments following repair, using hand tools and power tools and glue, hair, yarn, resin, or clamps, and lubricate instruments as necessary.
• Inspect instruments to locate defects, and to determine their value or the level of restoration required.
• Shape old parts and replacement parts to improve tone or intonation, using hand tools, lathes, or soldering irons.
• String instruments, and adjust trusses and bridges of instruments to obtain specified string tensions and heights.
• Repair cracks in wood or metal instruments, using pinning wire, lathes, fillers, clamps, or soldering irons.
• Polish instruments, using rags and polishing compounds, buffing wheels, or burnishing tools.
• Mix and measure glue that will be used for instrument repair.
• Align pads and keys on reed or wind instruments.
• Solder posts and parts to hold them in their proper places.
• Remove dents and burrs from metal instruments, using mallets and burnishing tools.
• Adjust felt hammers on pianos to increase tonal mellowness or brilliance, using sanding paddles, lacquer, or needles.
• Remove irregularities from tuning pins, strings, and hammers of pianos, using wood blocks or filing tools.
• Strike wood, fiberglass, or metal bars of instruments, and use tuned blocks, stroboscopes, or electronic tuners to evaluate tones made by instruments.
• Make wood replacement parts, using woodworking machines and hand tools.
• Refinish instruments to protect and decorate them, using hand tools, buffing tools, and varnish.
• Wash metal instruments in lacquer-stripping and cyanide solutions to remove lacquer and tarnish.
• Refinish and polish piano cabinets or cases to prepare them for sale.