March 20, 2024

Regulations and Appraisals w/ Sally Phillips and Leo Holder

2 hours 11 minutes

In this episode, we have Sally Phillips and Leo Holder. Sally talks about the amount of regulation a new piano needs. All the work that needs to be done to a piano before delivery will save you money in after-market servicing and enable you to get the trust of a dealer.

Sally walks us through her checklist of things we need to do to get the after-delivery servicing costs down. The same works for newly rebuilt pianos as well. Sally says “New pianos are kind of an enigma”, and the first thing you need to do is check if the piano has been damaged in moving, then move the action brackets and get to the regulating. Start with listening to the tuning and then level the strings and bring them up to 440. Sally talks through all the minute details that can help you take your game to the next level by giving it that extra attention to detail.

Up next, we have Leo who used to be batchmates with Sally in North Bennet, and talks about putting on an appraiser tax as a technician, its risks, things to do, and those to avoid. Leo talks about the principles and rules of appraisals codified by the Appraisal Board. He shares a wealth of information about appraisal and its necessary prerequisites.

Tune into this lecture to hear from Sally and Leo about the things that are less spoken about in the piano industry.

Here’s a little bit about our guests :

Sally Phillips: Over the past 40 years, Sally Phillips has worked in virtually every aspect of the piano industry: service, retail, wholesale, and manufacturing. She has tuned and prepared pianos for recordings and concerts in such venues as Town Hall in NYC, Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, and for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Concert Orchestra, and the Vienna Philharmonic. She's a 1976 graduate of North Bennet Street School. She has published articles for Piano Buyer, The American Organist, and the PTG Journal. Sally lives in Columbus, GA dealing in Steinway and other fine pianos as Piano Perfect, LLC.

Leo Holder: Leo studied piano at a music conservatory in Europe. He was thoroughly trained in piano technology at Boston's North Bennett Street Industrial School under Bill Garlick and David Betts. He's been certified as an expert piano technician by the Baldwin Piano Company. He is a Resident Technician at the Third Street Music School (America's oldest) where he also taught a course in Piano Maintenance to musicians.

𝐉𝐎𝐈𝐍 𝐔𝐒 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓❗❗

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