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I have been a Piano Technician since 1985, graduating with a Piano Technology degree. After attending a 12 month course, which included rebuilding, refinishing and tuning, I moved to Torrance, California to begin my career. I've been self-employed since graduation after which I began to contract out my tuning services for companies such as Colton Piano, Sherman Clay and Field's, to name a few. I serve primarily San Bernadino and Riverside Counties -- including Palm Springs and the surrounding desert cities. I currently tune for the University of Redlands, the Redlands Symphony, and Cal. State University, San Bernardino. I have a database of over 3,000 customers and am available for evening appointments. After many years of tuning rental pianos for various piano stores, I saw the need to have good quality rentals and decided to start a piano rental business. I began renting pianos in 1996. After working out of my home and then leasing a storage area in Highland for several months I decided to open my own piano store with more space in Yucaipa, California. Shultz Piano opened in October of 2002 and lasted a little over a year and a half. I was outgrowing the small store and decided to expand to a more visible location so I moved close to the 10 freeway to start Oak Valley Piano. In July 2004 Oak Valley Piano opened its first location at a 5760 square foot facility with many more pianos to choose from. After finishing a five year lease at this location, and with an economic downturn in full force we had to downsize. So in May 2009 we moved to the Redlands Mall. With our sheet music department continuing to grow, we found a 3400 square foot space that would suit our needs. Unfortunately the mall lost a major anchor store and began losing ground. As a result we were forced to move to another location that was more visible to the public. We were fortunate to find a great spot off the I-10 freeway just east of Alabama Street in Redlands. On June 1, 2010 Oak Valley Piano officially opened for business at 1235 Indiana Court, Suite 101 in Redlands, California - approximately 2 miles from our previous location. All of our new and used pianos at Oak Valley Piano are for rent (with an option to buy) or for outright purchase. All pianos are in excellent mechanical condition and have been thoroughly repaired (if necessary) to give the renter/owner the best instrument possible. All pianos are tuned before leaving the shop to insure the optimum in tuning stability. At Oak Valley Piano, we don't believe you can tell the true tone of any piano unless it is in perfect tune, so we make sure to concentrate on getting the best tone out of our pianos by first tuning them. While tuning, some need for repairs may become evident. Those repairs are performed on the spot. Without this tuning/repair process being performed, the need for many minor repairs would go unnoticed. "I believe that tuning, above all else, is most important for the musician, and that proper tuning gives the musician the best possible advantage for a perfect performance. Without proper tuning, the musician's mind is on the terrible sound of the piano which hinders that performance. Proper tuning is critical to how the musician feels about the piano and therefore critical to how the musician performs." |
