Occupation: Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners
Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners
Repair percussion, stringed, reed, or wind instruments. May specialize in one area, such as piano tuning.
Reported Job Titles
(10)
- Banjo Repair Person
- Brass Instrument Repair Technician
- Fretted String Instrument Repairer
- Guitar Repairer
- Instrument Repair Technician
- Luthier
- Mandolin Repair Person
- Piano Technician
- Piano Tuner
- Stringed Instrument Repairer
Work Values
Work Value | Score |
---|---|
Achievement | 4.33 |
Working Conditions | 3.17 |
Recognition | 2.67 |
Relationships | 2.67 |
Support | 2.67 |
Independence | 4.33 |
Core Tasks
(14)
- Play instruments to evaluate their sound quality and to locate any defects.
- Adjust string tensions to tune instruments, using hand tools and electronic tuning devices.
- Reassemble instruments following repair, using hand tools and power tools and glue, hair, yarn, resin, or clamps, and lubricate instruments as necessary.
- Disassemble instruments and parts for repair and adjustment.
- Repair or replace musical instrument parts and components, such as strings, bridges, felts, and keys, using hand and power tools.
- Inspect instruments to locate defects, and to determine their value or the level of restoration required.
- Compare instrument pitches with tuning tool pitches to tune instruments.
- String instruments, and adjust trusses and bridges of instruments to obtain specified string tensions and heights.
- Polish instruments, using rags and polishing compounds, buffing wheels, or burnishing tools.
- Repair cracks in wood or metal instruments, using pinning wire, lathes, fillers, clamps, or soldering irons.
- Mix and measure glue that will be used for instrument repair.
- Shape old parts and replacement parts to improve tone or intonation, using hand tools, lathes, or soldering irons.
- Refinish instruments to protect and decorate them, using hand tools, buffing tools, and varnish.
- Make wood replacement parts, using woodworking machines and hand tools.
Supplemental Tasks
(15)
- Align pads and keys on reed or wind instruments.
- Solder posts and parts to hold them in their proper places.
- Remove dents and burrs from metal instruments, using mallets and burnishing tools.
- Test tubes and pickups in electronic amplifier units, and solder parts and connections as necessary.
- Adjust felt hammers on pianos to increase tonal mellowness or brilliance, using sanding paddles, lacquer, or needles.
- Remove irregularities from tuning pins, strings, and hammers of pianos, using wood blocks or filing tools.
- Strike wood, fiberglass, or metal bars of instruments, and use tuned blocks, stroboscopes, or electronic tuners to evaluate tones made by instruments.
- Wash metal instruments in lacquer-stripping and cyanide solutions to remove lacquer and tarnish.
- Deliver pianos to purchasers or to locations of their use.
- Remove drumheads by removing tension rods with drum keys and cutting tools.
- Solder or weld frames of mallet instruments and metal drum parts.
- Repair breaks in percussion instruments, such as drums and cymbals, using drill presses, power saws, glue, clamps, grinding wheels, or other hand tools.
- Assemble bars onto percussion instruments.
- Clean, sand, and paint parts of percussion instruments to maintain their condition.
- Replace xylophone bars and wheels.