Bill Cherry, Piano Tuner

08/06/2022

Someone has got to get a handle on professional moving companies that irresponsibly attempt to move grand pianos. It's not about brute strength, it's about being supervised as they take the instrument apart and pack it in cushioned blankets or not!

06/01/2022

There's a piano brand named Schimmel, and I think their small grands, especially, are far better than most of the names like Yamaha and Steinway. They are made in Germany. The stated retail prices are often about double what the dealer is willing to sell them for.

05/29/2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keGH7Yn5Zic
For many years, I have had radio-television as my avocation. Here I am doing a feature for News-24 Houston about the Galveston 1894 Grand Opera House. At the end, I play the concert grand on stage while the camera gives viewers a tour of the beautiful building

Galveston most famous historian and author, Bill Cherry, tells the story of the Island's Grand 1894 Opera House, and makes his Opera House "debut" playing th...

04/27/2022

If you're shopping for a piano, whether new or used, it's smart to get an old time piano technician to go along with you. I was just looking at used Yamaha Model G-1s. It's a very small baby grand....about 5'3". Some of them were listed as high as $12,000. None lower than about $7,000. They never follow-up when they sell their instrument to tell what they really got for it.

04/07/2022

I played in famous hotel dining rooms when I was a young man. It was really interesting and the pay was great, but most of the time I was by myself because I didn't know anyone in New York, for an example. One of the things that really stood out was that the hotels insisted that the pianist play recognizable cords, and not lots of inversions, etc. It seems that the fancy styles tired the diners out, and they would leave early. Ain't that something?

03/30/2022

A guy called me last week to tune a piano he had just "picked up." So the other day I went to see his treasure and to tune it. It turns out, a house was being demolished and he learned that there was a piano in it that was just ready to be put out for the trashman.

He and some friends loaded it up and moved it to his $3 million home for his kids to practice their piano lessons. That's fine so far, but the "piano" was a total mess. Throughout the years, I would say it was in the top 5 Worst Pianos I've Tuned. Primarily in this one's case, the strings were so "dead" that it actually couldn't be tuned at all.

Don't take a free piano without having a piano technician look at it first. You're likely to save a lot of headaches and expense.

03/23/2022

The D.H. Baldwin piano is not the same as the famous Baldwin piano. They are Korean made and in my opinion they aren't very well engineered and constructed.

03/04/2022

One of my longtime clients bought a Van Cliburn Signature Model M 5'7"Grand for his mom. He has a Model M of his own, and wanted his mom to have that pleasure his Steinway was bringing him. The piano was played in the 2013 Van Cliburn Concert, and comes with that certification and his signature on the piano's harp. The new Model Ms are being offered by Steinway for in excess of $70,000. My client will be pleased to offer hers for $49,500. Contact me at DallasPianoTuner.com for more information.

02/11/2022

Clean your piano keys with Clorox Disinfectant Wipes. It safely removes all of the dirt and sweat from your fingers, it doesn't leave any residue that would make the keys feel weird, and it will not damage cabinets of most pianos.

01/19/2022

If you have an upright piano sitting in your living room that you inherited, and it has not been tuned in a long time. you don't have a sentimental attachment to it. It's now a piece of furniture that looks like a piano.

12/30/2021

Other than Steinways
almost all grand pianos sold in thé US are made in the same Asian factory. Only the brand name on thé cover is different.

11/04/2021

Collard and Collard was one of the early builders of the piano forte. I've seen later versions, but never one that was actually built by the two brother circa 1825 or so.

This past week, I had the pleasure of servicing and tuning one that had been delicately restored from cabinet to mechanism to strings by a Dallas genius, named Uriel.

It was the perfect restoration of a worthy vintage piano. It is in the home of Terry & Sharon Worrell.