Don Roberts
Piano Tuner

History

I first apprenticed with the late Walt Sierota in 1976. He was then the president of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Piano Technicians Guild. He was also the exclusive piano technician for "Electric Factory Concerts" in the Philadelphia area. Most of his work was performed at the Tower Theater, the Spectrum Theater, etc., for many professional artists: Artists ranging from Frank Sinatra, Chick Corea, and Bruce Springstein.

He taught me tuning - I found out that pianos are not tuned perfectly on purpose. Pianos are tuned by tempering intervals. The idea of temperament tuning was first developed by Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach used this in his "Well Tempered Clavichord." The purpose of tempering was to enable the harpsichordist, and later the pianist to play in all twelve keys without having to retune if a particular selection was in a different key. Bach developed a system where the fourth interval of the scale was slightly sharpened, or raised slightly, and the fifth interval of the scale was slightly flattened, or lowered.

Today we have progressed from the "Well Temperament" of Bach's day to what we use in piano tuning today, which is called equal temperament. Equal temperament is a means of tuning which not only alters the fourth and fifth intervals of the scale. Equal temperament alters major thirds., minor thirds., major sixths, & minor sixths. After about two years of practice I learned how to tune pianos using an equal temperament aurally.

Today I use a tuning aid device called the "Sanderson Accu-tuner" that was invented by Dr. Albert Sanderson to tune pianos. Dr. Sanderson is world renown for his mathematical formulas in terms of understanding acoustic string attack and decay, and especially his understanding of equal temperament. His credentials are a Phd in acoustics.

After Studying with Mr. Sierota and working part time as a piano tuner for a number of years I decided to become a full time piano technician in 1983. At that point I acquired a job working full time in an area piano store. I worked there full time until 1989. I received a wealth of information in that period about pianos. I saw all kinds of pianos. I tuned, restored, sold, and even moved them. In 1989 I decided I was ready to go part time (3 days a week) working in the piano store, and three days a week working doing my own tuning and servicing. By early 1990 I totally went on my own without any more affiliation with the piano store. Since then my business has grown yearly mainly due to word of mouth advertising.

I think the reasons for using me as your piano technician are as follows. It's always just me that you are dealing with, not a large staff of pressured, underpaid technicians that need to get in and out of your house as fast as possible.

I will spend the time that I need to do the job right! I genuinely care, and enjoy making your piano sound better.