Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners

Play instruments to evaluate their sound quality and to locate any defects.

Align pads and keys on reed or wind instruments.

Adjust string tensions to tune instruments, using hand tools and electronic tuning devices.

Reassemble instruments following repair, using hand tools and power tools and glue, hair, yarn, resin, or clamps, and lubricate instruments as necessary.

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.

Solder posts and parts to hold them in their proper places.

Inspect instruments to locate defects, and to determine their value or the level of restoration required.

Compare instrument pitches with tuning tool pitches to tune instruments.

Remove dents and burrs from metal instruments, using mallets and burnishing tools.

Test tubes and pickups in electronic amplifier units, and solder parts and connections as necessary.

String instruments, and adjust trusses and bridges of instruments to obtain specified string tensions and heights.

Adjust felt hammers on pianos to increase tonal mellowness or brilliance, using sanding paddles, lacquer, or needles.

Polish instruments, using rags and polishing compounds, buffing wheels, or burnishing tools.

Remove irregularities from tuning pins, strings, and hammers of pianos, using wood blocks or filing tools.

Repair cracks in wood or metal instruments, using pinning wire, lathes, fillers, clamps, or soldering irons.

Mix and measure glue that will be used for instrument repair.

Shape old parts and replacement parts to improve tone or intonation, using hand tools, lathes, or soldering irons.

Refinish instruments to protect and decorate them, using hand tools, buffing tools, and varnish.

Make wood replacement parts, using woodworking machines and hand tools.

Strike wood, fiberglass, or metal bars of instruments, and use tuned blocks, stroboscopes, or electronic tuners to evaluate tones made by instruments.

Wash metal instruments in lacquer-stripping and cyanide solutions to remove lacquer and tarnish.

Assemble and install new pipe organs and pianos in buildings.

Refinish and polish piano cabinets or cases to prepare them for sale.

Deliver pianos to purchasers or to locations of their use.

Remove drumheads by removing tension rods with drum keys and cutting tools.

Place rim hoops back onto drum shells to allow new drumheads to dry and become taut.

Solder or weld frames of mallet instruments and metal drum parts.

Repair breaks in percussion instruments, such as drums and cymbals, using drill presses, power saws, glue, clamps, grinding wheels, or other hand tools.

Cut new drumheads from animal skins, using scissors, and soak drumheads in water to make them pliable.

Assemble bars onto percussion instruments.

Stretch drumheads over rim hoops and tuck them around and under the hoops, using hand tucking tools.

Cut out sections around cracks on percussion instruments to prevent cracks from advancing, using shears or grinding wheels.

Clean, sand, and paint parts of percussion instruments to maintain their condition.

File metal reeds until their pitches correspond with standard tuning bar pitches.

Replace xylophone bars and wheels.

Remove material from bars of percussion instruments to obtain specified tones, using bandsaws, sanding machines, machine grinders, or hand files and scrapers.