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Who listens to ABC 891 Adelaide: Mornings with Ali Clarke on your travels?! If you happened to miss it, you can listen to Joe talk about pianos on the “Monday’s Experts” segment, which aired on Monday 30 May at 10.30 am below, by clicking on the ‘play’ symbol below.

We had an interesting find in our piano workshop today; deep inside a piano that we were pulling apart to repair and restore, we found this interesting newspaper clipping. We don’t know what year it dates, however it was a question written in from CM from Salisbury North to Mr Lucien Parent, a highly regarded Adelaide piano restorer and tuner from the 1960s through to the early millennium. We find it interesting that now we have our FAQs available on our website and our Facebook page, however back then Adelaide people wrote to the paper for such information. After finding this little gem, we did some more research and found this snippit from the National Archives of Australia about Mr Parent, under the category of ‘Migrants in Employment’. Fascinating stuff! And what a legend is the late Mr Parent.  Have a look at the National Archives link below: https://www.destinationaustralia.gov.au/site/records.php?task=detail&id=2950 We were lucky enough to meet Mr Parent about 10 years

Piano keys can be thought of in two separate sections. The front wider section of the key where the fingers touch is called the ‘head’ and the rear more narrow section is called the ‘tail’. Ivory keys were almost always made from two seperate pieces of ivory.  One piece for the head and one piece for the tail. If there is a join mark visible between the two sections, the key is most likely made from ivory.  If there is no join, the key is most likely made from plastic.  

Mobile Piano Service’s brand new store  is NOW OPEN! at 7 Osmond Terrace, Norwood (previously occupied by Botega Rotollo Food & Wine) In addition to a great range of restored and reconditioned pianos, we are excited to announce that we are now stockists of a great range of  new Yamaha pianos! As an opening offer, we are offering great trade-in deals on your existing piano for a new Yamaha piano.  Call in to our new store, or call us now to discuss (8379 1218). To celebrate our store opening, we have a competition to win a free Piano Tune and Service valued at $285, click here to enter.

People often call us asking how they can tell if a piano has an iron frame. There are 4 easy steps that can be followed to tell you if a piano has an iron frame rather than a wooden frame. These are as follows: 1. With the top lid open, look down inside the piano. 2. Whilst looking down inside the piano and looking at the back section, you should see approximately 250 tuning pins exiting the tuning plank. 3. Have a look around the tuning pins, if you can see or feel a metal structure running the length of the piano (Usually a gold colour) around the tuning pins, the piano has an iron frame. 4. If there is no metal structure around the tuning pins, the piano is most likely a wooden framed piano and may not be tunable. Below is a photo of what the inside of a ‘Zimmerman’ brand upright piano looks like with the top panel removed. Note, the

For those who wonder how us piano tuners spend our days, check out this fantastic 5 minute documentary by the ABC on the dying art of piano tuning… If the video doesn’t open on a mobile device, click the link below! http://www.abc navigate to this site.net.au/insidebusiness/content/2011/s3137464.htm