Hill Country Piano

We had an old Knabe make piano which had lost several Damper pads that needed to be replaced. Mr. Dunn had been recommended to me by persons who maintain the pianos at the University of Texas Butler school of music in Austin. When I called Mr. Dunn to discuss repair of this piano which was old and and in which some of the inner mechanisms had become fragile, he quite generously offered to come out and take a look (a 40 min drive). We talked about repairing it and he proceeded to order parts. The following day, I called him to discuss his impressions of the piano and the value of repairing it, as it was somewhat of a family heirloom. He advised me that the piano was old, that the repairs and replacements of parts would probably cost more than $1000. And because it was old and the strings are fragile, this may lead to even more repairs. He advised that the wisest course would be to purchase another used piano that we knew was available rather than invest a significant amount of money in this one and possibly still not achieve the desired result. Because he performed no repairs and did not tune the piano, he did not charge us anything. We found his advice to be correct and helpful. Throughout the process he was very pleasant and easy to work with.