Frank Renfrow Piano Tuner-Technician, 103 Covert Run Pike, Fort Thomas, KY (2026)

FRANK RENFROW
PIANO TUNER-TECHNICIAN
Serving Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky and Dearborn County, Indiana.
36 years in the profession as a full-time piano tuner-technician.
11 years with Baldwin Piano Co. Services Include:

EXPERT PIANO TUNING, including in-home, church, school and concert tunings. REPAIRS, including pitch raises, action adjustments, action regulation, action reconditioning

, parts replacements, individual string replacements and pedal adjustments. Experienced in all facets of both vertical and grand piano regulation and repairs. INCORPORATING a lifetime of experience in diagnosing and resolving problems with sticking and sluggish keys, action noises, clicking, buzzes, rattles, diminished tone and loose tuning pins. SERVICING all makes and models, old and new, including Baldwin, Steinway, Yamaha, Kawai, Petrof, Young Chang, Wurlitzer, Chickering, Weber, Boston, Essex, Pearl River, Knabe, Mason & Hamlin, Everett, Kohler & Campbell, Samick, Kimball, Story & Clark, Walter, Bechstein, Bosendorfer, Pramberger and Sohmer. PIANOS FOR SALE specializing in the perfect piano for your home as well as antique pianos, piano fortes and forte pianos of considerable historic interest. cincinnati piano tuner northern kentucky piano tuner technician service repair N KY piano Cincy piano Cinti piano Cinci piano Fort Thomas piano N KY Fort Mitchell piano N KY Anderson Twp piano OH Hyde Park piano OH Hebron piano N KY Burlington piano N KY Union piano N KY Clermont piano OH Indian Hill piano OH Montgomery piano OH Cold Spring piano N KY Terrace Park piano OH Independence piano N KY

A sampling of performing artists and notable persons that I have tuned for in the past:

Van Cliburn
Count Basie
Liza Minnelli
Natalie Cole
The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra
The Eagles
Seals and Crofts
Senator Robert Taft Jr.

09/17/2025

And I thought I was maybe getting about old enough to retire! Bill Blank is still tuning pianos at 95! More power to him!

01/23/2025

As an old Cincinnati retail Baldwin Piano guy I was somewhat excited to actually have a customer with a brand new Baldwin Baby Grand piano to tune today. I was under the impression that after the company went out of business in 2006 that the name was sold to a Chinese company, and those were not being distributed in the USA. Looking it up though I guess they started distributing them in the USA in 2011, but the dealer (he wasn't sure of the name) told my customer this was a new roll-out here. In fact the serial number was only in the 2500s so apparently very early in the production stage.

Nowadays as I am totally independent and not associated with a piano dealer I rarely get to work on new pianos of any make. Most of the pianos I work on are very old, and unfortunately many have not been regularly serviced in recent years. This is very different than when I first started and many of our regular Baldwin customers would get their pianos tuned every year religiously and quite a few even every six months.

The piano looks like a Baldwin but sounds about comparable to many of the Baby Grands coming out of Asia now, actually a little better than most I think. Many of them are now being made in Indonesia, so not even sure about the origin of this one. It used to be required to have a label saying where the piano was made, but that seems to have lapsed many decades ago. Anyway it is nice to have new Baldwins back in town again.

Maybe with the new Administration favoring "made in the USA" they may eventually be made in America again. Maybe even in Cincinnati! I can dream anyway, can't I? Old piano guys are allowed to dream! And the Baldwin Piano Company was born and raised in Cincinnati by the way! Some younger folks may not know that.

04/30/2024

70 years old and 50 years in the Piano biz folks! Both things happened in April!
It was 50 years ago this April that I was hired as a Piano Tuner-technician apprentice at Fitzsimmon's Piano and Organ Company in Dayton, Ohio. I wanted that job badly enough that I had the barber cut off my very long hair and I also shaved off my raggedy beard before going down for the job interview. This is the only photo I have of myself from that time that I can find, taken in June of 1974, so I guess my hair was not really cut as short as I had remembered but much shorter than it was just before the interview.
So anyway now I can officially say I have been in the piano tuning business for 50 years now. I like the independence of it so I think the occupation suits me. Sadly I witnessed the decline and fall of most of the American piano manufacturing firms, so I am an old survivor of those days in that way I think. In much of the eleven years I was with the Baldwin Piano Company I estimate I tuned about a thousand pianos a year so roughly 10,000 tunings during that period, which has been telling on my hands and shoulders especially. The dealerships paid poorly so there was never a lot of money in it, and since I have been doing it independently since 1988 I have not been doing nearly the workload so the pay stayed about the same. Thus I would not recommend it to anyone nowadays.

Too hard on the joints, for too little money, and a hazy future with the rise of digital and AI everything. The acoustic piano is increasingly becoming the odd man out in many churches and schools. Very nice pianos can be had now for free, the value of them has fallen so low. Most of my work used to be those of the WWII generation who got their pianos tuned every six months, despite their often limited incomes. Now 80% of my work is in tuning pianos young people get from their aunts and grandmas that have not been tuned in twenty or thirty years and even longer. I rarely see a piano that is newer than 20 years old nowadays as I am not working with a dealership. My first loves were the old pre-1920 Uprights, but now they are so old I decline to work on them especially due to my shoulder issues. For a little while I was enjoying buying and selling historic pianofortes, some going back to the 1780s, but the materials restrictions nowadays got so onerous I gave that up. Seems like choices in these days tend to get narrower and narrower for enjoying all the old things we once valued.

However with all that said I have a lot of rich memories of the old piano stores, the old affable piano salesmen, the old wiley dealership bosses the old colorful piano movers and some very, very old pianos themselves. A lot of good stories that could definitely fill up a book or two if I ever get around to writing it all down. I have tuned pianos for Count Basie, Van Cliburn, Liza Minnelli, Natalie Cole, The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, The Eagles, Seals and Crofts, Senator Robert Taft and Jerry Springer. I tuned for an elderly gentlemen that related he had a piano instructor, who was trained himself by Franz Liszt. I have tuned pianos in the most stately of Mansions and the most roughly appointed trailers and garages. I have gotten to know the roadways of the entire Greater Cincinnati area and have seen many, many changes over the years. And I'm not done as yet folks! Just doing only two or three a week now to keep my skin in the game. It has been a long run!

08/29/2023

I am now back to tuning most Spinet (34"-39" tall) Console Pianos (40-42" tall), Studio Upright Verticals (43-45" tall) and I am still tuning most Grand Pianos as well. I have to wait another week to change my FB Business Page name back to normal though. I will be passing on the over 48" uprights as well, and will no longer service old uprights built prior to 1930. I will still be doing tunings and minor repairs primarily and will not be taking on old pianos in bad condition with broken strings or numerous broken parts. Serving the Greater Cincinnati area for 49 1/2 years! I am now in that big countdown to 50 years which is coming up in April of 2024 (the month I started my apprenticeship at the Steinway and Wurlitzer dealership in Dayton, Ohio. I was actually doing a bit of tuning previous to that on my own so already well past that 50 year mark on that.

07/05/2023

Hi, This is Frank Renfrow your friendly neighborhood piano tuner. For almost 50 years now I have been doing my part to make the world more harmonious. At this point I am now doing Grand Pianos only, preferably less han 70 years old without any broken strings or extensive repairs needed. You may reach me by email at [email protected] see links below as well. I apologize to my regular customers and any convenience this may cause. Unfortunately right now there is no one still in the business that I am familiar with that I can refer you to if you have a vertical piano and not a grand.

As of the year 2023 I have 49 years of experience in tuning pianos in the Cincinnati region. After starting in 1974 and completing my apprenticeship with a Steinway-Wurlitzer dealer, I worked for the Baldwin Piano Company from 1977 to 1988 doing customer piano tunings. I have been doing it independently ever since. Please feel free to contact me at

[email protected]

You can also text or leave me a voicemail at 859-653-1460. Hopefully I can update my voicemail message soon but right now it is a generic one but that is me. have to admit I have gotten sort of out of the habit of checking voicemails or answering the phone so bear with me.

Serving Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky
Now celebrating 49 years in the profession
11 years with Baldwin Piano Company in Cincinnati, now independent.
Steinway dealership trained with state and federal certification.
Services Include:

EXPERT PIANO TUNING
REPAIRS
I do minor repairs and adjustments
at an additional charge during the course of a piano tuning, including:
pitch raises, action adjustments, action regulation and pedal adjustments.
Experienced in all facets of both vertical and grand piano regulation and repairs.

INCORPORATING
a lifetime of experience in diagnosing and resolving problems with sticking and sluggish keys.
cincinnati piano tuner, northern kentucky piano tuner technician service repair NKY piano Cincy piano Cinti piano Cinci piano Fort Thomas piano N KY Fort Mitchell piano N KY Anderson Twp piano OH Hyde Park piano OH Hebron piano N KY Burlington piano N KY Union piano N KY Clermont piano OH Indian Hill piano OH Montgomery piano OH Cold Spring piano N KY Terrace Park piano OH Independence piano NKY

Address

103 Covert Run Pike
Fort Thomas, KY
41075

Website

http://www.pianocincinnati.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Frank Renfrow Piano Tuner-Technician posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Frank Renfrow Piano Tuner-Technician:

Frank Renfrow Piano Tuner-Technician