Robert M Sides Family Music Violin How Muh
It all started with a piano tuner and an amazing delivery to service. When Bob Sides married Ellin Fletcher in 1931, he was marrying into a family of piano tuners. As his granddaughter Alysha Sides Greevy tells it, he was an auditor at the kickoff of the Peachy Low, when no one had money to count. But people who had pianos often had enough coin to get them tuned. So Bob learned the skill of piano tuning from his father-in-constabulary and started tuning pianos in the Williamsport area, where his reputation for service brought a steady stream of customers in those dark times. When a traveling salesman stopped in at the Sides' home and sold them on selling pianos out of their home, the tuning business gained a sideline. By then Bob repaired pianos every bit well, and thus began the Sides' philosophy of servicing everything they sell.
It wasn't long before they were selling some band instruments, too. They moved out of the house to a Washington Boulevard storefront right later WWII. As the business organisation grew, Bob's son, Hugh "Pete" Sides, envisioned a store where not only pianos and band instruments were purchased, simply where customers could buy orchestra instruments and sound equipment for performances and for the habitation. Across that, he instituted a rental program for pianos and ring instruments, then more kids in schoolhouse and people of more modest means could take an instrument to try, to learn the magic of making music.
For a visitor that prides itself on "servicing what they sell," this explosion of instruments needed a skilled repair staff to repair a armada of pianos and space to store instruments over the summer. They needed much more than room, and by the mid 1980s they found and renovated their current location, an one-time warehouse with over 52,000 square feet on Mulberry Street.
It'southward a huge complex, with several large showrooms, a recital hall, lesson rooms, and all the instruments and equipment people have come up to expect. Only as y'all walk up to the 2d flooring, you enter the heart and soul of Robert K. Sides Family Music Centers.
The entire area looks like an antiquarian workshop, with hardwood working benches filled with the hand tools of the merchandise—for the 2d floor is filled with all sorts of instruments in the procedure of being repaired, restored to employ in a family domicile, in a working ring, or in the various rental programs.
In the contumely and woodwind area Ron Billman, Tom Morrison, Joel Wells, and John Waxmunsky are hard at work on horns and saxophones. These artisans are some of the best in the industry and brand many a "crush-up contumely" or "wounded current of air" whole over again. The repairs at Sides last and keep these instruments in adept working order for rented instruments, for professional person musicians, and for people that play for their own enjoyment.
Ron Billman, a ring repair technician for over twenty-5 years, tells the story of a Penn State Academy Blueish Band sousaphone that somehow took a header over the bleachers. At PSU these large tuba-like horns are plated in argent. Ron got the dent out and saved a valuable ring instrument to greet the Blue and White on some other game twenty-four hour period. The whole squad agrees that the hardest musical instrument to repair is a saxophone, with its big number of valves. They have been asked to repair instruments that have been neglected for a generation. They've fifty-fifty repaired bagpipes!
Around the corner, another workstation is surrounded with frets and strings, and it is there that Eric Bashore and James Jenkins are at piece of work on stringed instruments. James is also a man with an incredible centre for color in finishing, and is sometimes called in to work with the cease on piano cases.
Just downwards the hall, the strings and hand tools give way to oscillators and electronic equipment. Dewey Corage and Bill Rinker work there, and much of their work revolves around designing audio systems for public spaces. The Little League complex, Bowman Field, also as many schools and churches use these experts to "go the sound right" from the instrument or vocalization to the audition. This is in addition to the repair of all electronic instruments. And, of course, Nib Rinker repairs home organs.
Just the first love for Pete Sides, and the crown jewel of the service at Robert Yard. Sides, is the piano. In that location, Bob Dincher, brother Christopher Dicher, and Chris'southward son Luke are the men responsible for both cleaning and repairing pianos, only also the delicate task of tuning everything from the family unit piano to a Steinway for an international performer. Bob and Chris have been with Sides over 20-5 years. They started as pianoforte movers, then trained in tuning and piano repair, both at Sides and beyond the doors of the business at seminars and formal schooling. But Bob says the all-time training was the "trial by burn down," as the Community Arts Center began to bring in national and international performers. They needed to prepare Steinway pianos for Vladimir Feltsman, Emmanuel Ax, Ronnie Milsap, and George Winston. And musicians on this level can hear when a notation or a tone is not what they are looking for in a piano for performance. Alysha (who with brother Peter, Pete's son, are the new generation at the helm) notes that pianists are at the mercy of the pianoforte in front of them, since they cannot bring their pianos with them.
Working with professional musicians is not easy. As Franz Mohr, piano technician for Vladimir Horowitz, said, "Your primary job is to instill confidence in the artist." That confidence starts with the confidence and skill of the technician preparing that pianoforte with the artist. And for that, Chris Dincher has a souvenir—the gift of being able to hear what the artist hears in a piano, and so to find a mechanical/technical solution to a trouble described in terms of the color of the notes. Bob says that it is this painstaking work with top artists that allow them to go into a person's home and make a fine piano sound how the possessor would similar information technology to sound.
Information technology'due south not just tuning for this trio. They as well practise restorations, reconditions, and repairs on all kinds of pianos. The day of this visit, Bob was cleaning pianos. A pianoforte tin be a dark, quiet place, and all kinds of critters can make a home there. When they movement a pianoforte from a dwelling house, it is given a cleaning to remove all the debris. Alysha besides explained that there are many things that they can do to make a piano perform better, but regular tuning is essential to maintain the convex shape of the soundboard in a piano. The soundboard looks like a harp, and the convex shape is chosen the crown of the piano. If the instrument is not tuned, information technology can relax to the point where the shape is gone. At that indicate, a repair ways a soundboard replacement. At the end of the day, for a restoration to exist successful, the pianoforte has to play correctly.
So there are the Steinways. It'due south probably one of the offset things that you see at Robert Yard. Sides. One room is filled with Steinways that have been restored, dating from 1877 to the mid-twentieth century. And equally talented every bit the instrument miracle workers at Sides are, they do non do a restoration on a Steinway. For that, the piano must go either to Hamburg, Germany or New York Urban center for the installation of a factory soundboard and pinblock. Steinway keeps records of every piano manufactured, and who bought information technology—going back to 1864. Using the genuine parts helps these magnificent pianos keep their investment value. As Pete Sides says, "Y'all wouldn't put a Corvette engine in a Ferrari," and the same holds true nigh putting not-Steinway parts in a Steinway.
Half dozen of these beautiful pianos were sent past Robert M. Sides to the Countless Mountain Music Festival, with a value of nigh half a million dollars. Those pianos will be prepared for performances past the pianoforte technicians at Sides, and instruments used in other performances may well exist maintained by 1 of the fourteen people in accuse of keeping everything from acoustic guitars to zithers ready to play. It is a team that has performed over ten,000 repairs of band and orchestra instruments alone, with over 250 years of feel. It's a legacy of service that spans generations, and makes a glorious sound, indeed.
Source: https://www.mountainhomemag.com/2015/08/03/186621/play-on
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