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Career Description

Repair percussion, stringed, reed, or wind instruments. May specialize in one area, such as piano tuning.

What Job Titles Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners Might Have

• Banjo Repair Person
• Luthier
• Piano Technician
• Piano Tuner

What Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners Do

• Play instruments to evaluate their sound quality and to locate any defects.
• 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.
• 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.
• String instruments, and adjust trusses and bridges of instruments to obtain specified string tensions and heights.
• Polish instruments, using rags and polishing compounds, buffing wheels, or burnishing 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.
• 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.
• Test tubes and pickups in electronic amplifier units, and solder parts and connections as necessary.
• 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.
• Wash metal instruments in lacquer-stripping and cyanide solutions to remove lacquer and tarnish.

What Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners Should Be Good At

• Hearing Sensitivity - The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
• Arm-Hand Steadiness - The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
• Manual Dexterity - The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
• Finger Dexterity - The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
• Control Precision - The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Auditory Attention - The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• Visualization - The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.

What Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners Should Be Interested In

• Realistic - Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.
• Artistic - Artistic occupations frequently involve working with forms, designs and patterns. They often require self-expression and the work can be done without following a clear set of rules.

What Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners Need to Learn

• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Mechanical - Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
• Fine Arts - Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.