Dave Chamberlain – Chasons Music

We recently had need of a good piano tuner in San Diego.
In the early 50’s my parents purchased an older George Steck upright piano. My sister and I both learned how to play on it. But by the early 80’s we had both moved on and the piano sat, rarely used, for over thirty years. A couple of years ago, when we were cleaning out our parents home in LA, our San Diego daughter told us that she would like the piano, so we moved it. A few months ago it was decided that our six-​year-​old granddaughter was going to be taking lessons, so we started looking for a piano tuner. I spoke with a couple of folks, but was discouraged when I explained the situation to them. And then, a good friend, who is a professional trumpeter, told us about Dave. (Thank you again, Elizabeth!)
When I spoke to Dave, he sounded genuinely intrigued by our situation and we set a time to meet. Dave brought information about our piano. We found out that it was actually a pretty upscale piano when it was made in the early 1890’s! So it is now over a century old! We had no idea. Thus, after thirty years of neglect, Dave carefully and lovingly began working on the oldest member of our family.
From the outset, it was obvious that this was going to be more than a simple 2 – 3 hour tuning. The pitch was low, several strings broke and had to be repaired, a couple of the keys were sticking, pedals had to be fixed, etc. So the plan became to work on it three separate times. His first visit was on October 30^th. He then came back a couple of weeks later to finish the first, main, tuning and repairs. At that point the piano was in tune, but we all knew that strings would be stretching, pins may not hold, etc., etc., etc. So he came for the final tuning last week (early December).
I don’t think that the old piano has EVER sounded as good. Of course, he uses all of the electronic digital tools that are now available, and that helps, BUT… his attitude and caring cannot be duplicated.
I do need to bring up the «bad» thing about Dave. He is not a cold «professional» — he is highly personal and loves people and loves to talk. Not only does he know a lot about pianos, but he has lead a fascinating life and enjoys sharing his experiences. So I know that he can simply tune your piano, but, if you are like me, he will also keep you entertained for hours!
One more thing. Dave has created and sells mouthpieces for trumpets and trombones through his company — Chasons Music. Being a pianist/​choralist, I can’t say anything about them, but he appears to have many followers. It appears to me that this would be worth checking out!
So, bottom line, I feel very grateful to Elizabeth for introducing me to Dave. He will be doing our tuning for as long as we have a piano in San Diego.