I am often asked what repairs are most frequent. On the road, I work with instruments which are for some quite recent, but others are more than a hundred years old. Some repairs are common in my practice, but be assured there are not so common in the life of a piano.
The most common repair I do is hammer repairs. These hammers are pieces made up of a wooden handle and a felt head that strike the strings. Although their name refers to a solid tool, you will find them to look quite frail. It as to be somehow light because the pianist must be able to make it move at impressive speeds with the only force of his fingers! Since this part repeatly hits steel wires, this moving part is under great stress. Sometimes disassembling and re-gluing the parts is sufficient, but sometimes the handle must be replaced when it is broken.
Another frequently repair is strings replacement. All simple steel strings (about 2/3 of the instrument) can be custom made by me from high quality steel wires of precises diameters. On the other hand, bass strings, those which are weighed (to lower pitch) by a copper wire, requires a particular technique and I personally prefer to subcontract to an expert in the field. These strings are custom made and precisely replicated from original string specifications. It usually takes a little longer before a second appointment to come and install them in your instrument.
