One technician, and the piano in front of him

Scott D. Portzline Piano Services is one technician working out of Harrisburg, PA. The person who answers the phone is the person who tunes the piano, and on a move he is the one on the other end of the strap. There is no dispatcher between you and the work, which is why the answers you get about your instrument are specific rather than general.

Tuning here is done by ear. The temperament is set by listening to the beats between strings instead of reading numbers off a device, and the intervals are fitted to the instrument in its own room. Customers notice it: one Mechanicsburg owner had her Baldwin tuned after a move and wrote that it sounded better than when she first bought it. It is a slower way to work and it is the reason older pianos, with all their individual quirks, come out sounding like themselves again.

The moving side grew out of the same thing. Pianos have to get to where they are played, and general movers are not equipped for a thousand-pound grand or an upright player piano at the bottom of a basement stair. That work is done with piano dollies, boards, straps and blankets, with a crew when the job calls for one, and it is insured. Grands come apart to travel and go back together at the other end.

The relationships are long ones. The Harrisburg Opera Association has used these services for more than twenty-five years, according to its executive and artistic director, and the Artisan Guitar Show describes decades of working together, including a Jimmy Webb performance. Alongside those are the everyday jobs: a broken string in a family living room, new white keytops, a Dampp-Chaser fitted to stop a piano fighting the heating season, an appraisal for an estate, and the disposal of an instrument that has reached the end.

What holds it together is plain dealing. You are told what is wrong, what it takes to fix, and when a repair is not worth doing on that particular piano. Appointments run Monday through Saturday, and it is always a call first.