Thomson Piano Works

06/23/2024

Recently while restoring a 7’ Steinway model B from the 1910’s I made a surprising discovery.

Piano keys are made of pine, a soft but stable wood. On this piano the “white” keys had ivory coverings, and the “black” keys were topped with ebony wood - both hard and resilient surfaces.

But years of practice by a concert artist had worn away the pine under the hard ebony tops of the sharp keys almost like wind and sand erode soft rock outcroppings.

Here are some before and after shots of the repair.

04/12/2024

I had a visitor observe my piano tuning today.

12/19/2023

It's been quite a musical week for me. And it culminated with the performance of another piece of mine. The Choir of St. Patrick Church in Chatham, NJ, under the direction of Maggie Hansen, performed my jazz arrangement of Christmas hymn "Let all mortal flesh keep silence" at their Christmas concert this weekend. It sounded pretty cool.

A jazz arrangement of the well-known 5th Century Christmas hymn performed by singers of the St. Patrick's Church Choir, Chatham NJ, under the direction of Ma...

12/16/2023

For those of you far-flung friends and family that didn't have the opportunity to see the concert last weekend featuring my piece "King John's Christmas," There's an amateur video of the performance on my you tube channel. You can find it here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXfZ8VSoZ-HizU1rCLWeWQ

06/03/2023

Don't miss Harmonium's last two concerts for the season - Saturday, June 3rd at 7:30 pm and Sunday, June 4th at 3:00 pm, both at Morristown United Methodist Church, where the music resonates so beautifully.
For tickets: https://www.harmonium.org/gettickets
For full program notes: https://www.harmonium.org/repertoire

05/20/2023

05/20/2023

Here's some more information about my latest restoration project:

1908 Mason & Hamlin Model AA grand

- Refinished in satin ebony with brass hardware
- Bolduc replacement pinblock custom fit to factory specs
- Re-strung with Arledge bass strings, and Roslau treble strings on 2/0
-Restored original soundboard, refinished with new decal
-Action replaced with Abel wippens, shanks & flanges, and Ronson "Weickert" hammers
- Original bench refinished to match

05/17/2023

Just finish work on another restoration, and another Mason & Hamlin model AA. I really like these instruments. This one was built in 1908. More info to come

05/06/2023

Mason & Hamlin Model B grand for sale. Fully restored 20 years ago by excellent technician using best parts available. Still playing like new and it really fills a room

05/06/2023

TOMORROW! Need to relax after a busy week? Do not miss this inspiring concert. Dr. Matlack says, "The 25 Chamber Singers will take you from a Brahms motet to the clapping and stomping of Tracy Wong's "Singkap Siaga", and the use of water bottles in Anders Edenroth's "Water" as performed by the Real Group. We will also present Trevor Weston's “Voices Live Forever”, and works by Josquin, Morley, Schutz, Dunphy and more! It is also our first unmasked concert, and I am so happy to see their expressive faces again!"

Read the program notes: https://www.harmonium.org/repertoire
Get tickets: https://www.harmonium.org/gettickets

04/22/2023

Removing the pinblock from a 1940s Steinway Model M...don't try this at home you'll make a mess

03/22/2023

A debate has stirred up in the piano restoration community about whether a restored Steinway is still a Steinway. Steinway & Sons recently announced that unless a restoration of one of their older pianos included only Original Steinway & Sons replacement parts it could no longer be considered a Steinway piano. Should it now be considered a Frankesteinway?

It’s a simple statement but the history of the company is not so simple. The piano they built in 1930 is significantly different from what they are producing today. The soundboards are thicker, the hammers are harder, and the action (all the parts that make up the keyboard) has been redesigned at least four times over the last 100 years.

Steinway replacement action parts are designed to work with “most” of the pianos they built in the past, but several aftermarket company have been selling more accurate reproduction of similar or better quality over the last 30 years. And new Steinway hammers don’t sound as good in older instruments with restored, original soundboards. I could go on with more examples like this.

What is a rebuilder to do? Well, what I won’t do is sacrifice the quality of my restorations to satisfy the marketing department at Steinway & Sons.