Randy Potter School Logo  
     Training Competent Piano Technicians for the 21st Century  
    Click here for Cost and Registration Form

Home Study Course Keyboard Magazine Seminars News Products Industry Links Graduates


On Stage This Week
1  
 



Books and DVDs from Potter Press:
A Division of the Randy Potter School of Piano Technology

Offering a complete line of books and DVD videos for all your educations needs.

Download Book Order Form (PDF)


The Business of Piano Tuning
A Guide to Marketing, Managing, Promoting, Buying and Selling A Piano Service Business
By Willem Blees, RPT

A 30+ year veteran of our profession, Wim has built businesses in three cities, owned and sold a well-known rebuilding shop and store, and is qualified to share his insights on marketing, managing, promoting, buying and selling a piano service business.

$19.95, plus shipping.

THE PIANO:
A Piano Technicians Guide for the Piano Owner
by Phil Gurlik, RPT


This book was written by a piano technician (Phil Gurlik, RPT) for his clients, to teach them about the instrument they love and cherish, and inform them about the services available from their piano technician to protect and enhance the value and playability of their piano. Now in its Fourth Edition, it includes update additions by Randy Potter, RPT, as well.

Book (paperback, 34 pages): $3.95, plus shipping.

How to Buy a Good Used Piano

How to Buy a Good Used Piano Book Video and DVD
by Willard Leverett, RPT


If you have any interest in buying a piano, new or used, this book will help you learn how to screen out the bad and recognize the good - upright, spinet and grand pianos. This step-by-step video shows you how to inspect a piano and detect problems with the soundboard, pinblock, strings, bridges, keys, action, dampers, pedals, case and veneer.

Book (paperback, 70 pages): $11.95, plus shipping.

Also,now available in video, too.
DVD (NTSC Open Format, 45 minutes): $24.95, plus shipping

pbrme video

Piano Bridge Repair Made Easy: Tips and Procedures DVD
by Willard Leverett, RPT


This video shows close-up views of three actual bridge repairs performed on real pianos. It includes Essential Tools and Materials, Hazards to Avoid, Repairable and Non-Repairable Bridges, and a special bonus section String Splicing Made Easy.

DVD (NTSC Open Format, 50 minutes): $24.95, plus shipping.

Piano Repair Tips

Piano Repair: Tips and Procedures DVD
by Willard Leverett, RPT


Piano technicians at all levels, from beginner to Registered Piano Technicians, will learn from this 50-minute DVD, which shows close-up views of repair procedures along with simple Do-It-Yourself tools to make it easy. Here is a partial list of the 38 tips and tools presented in this book: Key Repair, Keytop Replacement, Damper Repair, Splicing Strings, Tools for Restringing, Felt Cutting, Music Desk Repair, Soundboard Shimming Tool, Grand Piano Pedal Bushing, Agraffe Replacement, Bench Repair, Climate Control Systems, and even includes information on Drop Shipping Sales to clients and Simplified Employee Pensions for small shops with only a few employees.

DVD(NTSC Open Format, 50 minutes): $24.95, plus shipping.


Web Page Special:
Any two of Willard Leverett's DVDs, plus his book
How to Buy a Good Used Piano, for $55, plus shipping
(regular price $59.85),
or
All three of Willard Leverett's DVDs, plus his book
How to But a Good Used Piano,
for $75, plus shipping,
(regular price $84.80).
Piano Action Handbook

The Piano Action Handbook
Edited by Randy Potter, RPT


Published by the Piano Technicians Guild
This book includes regulating dimensions (key height, sharp height, blow distance, let off, key dip, back check distance and drop) for most pianos available in the U.S. and many parts of the world. Edited by Randy Potter in 1991, it includes dimensions published in the First and Second Editions, plus all piano makes and models regularly available in the U.S./Canadian market. It also includes a vertical and grand action diagram, regulating explanations and notes, SAE to metric conversion tables for common regulating dimensions, grand and vertical regulating sequences, manufacturers' addresses and contact information and a selected bibliography. Every piano technician should have this book in their regulating kit.

Book (paperback, 74 pages): $12.00, plus shipping.

 

Apprentice Training Manual

Apprentice Training Manual: A Check-Off Training Guide to Becoming a Competent Piano Tuner-Technician
by Randy Potter, RPT


This book was written by Randy Potter, RPT, President and Director of the Randy Potter School of Piano Technology, to help beginning piano technicians (and particularly students of the school) to chart and track their path to becoming a competent tuner-technician. It includes several hundred items in the areas of tuning, repairing and regulating, and has spaces to check off and date when the skill or technique has been learned at both a student (Apprentice / Associate) level and craftsman (Registered Piano Technician) level.

Book (paperback, 40 pages): $25.00, plus shipping.

Repair Lab Guide

"G" Piano Works Repair Labor Guide
by Joseph A. Garrett, RPT


This book is to piano technology what Chilton's Automobile Flat Rate Repair Manual is to the automobile service industry. Piano technicians and piano factories all over the world have, and use, this book to help them determine fair charges for the many services they offer. Included are over 400 service items, each with hourly times (given to 1/10th hour increments) for vertical, drop action, grand, square grand and birdcage (overdamper) pianos. If you do piano service - you need this book.

Book (paperback): $25.00, plus shipping.

 

Different Strokes

"DIFFERENT STROKES:
Hammer Techniques for Piano Technicians"
by Ken Burton, RPT


"For most of the 20-plus years I have been tuning, no one was willing to talk about, let alone write about, the many various ways we maneuver the tuning pin in order to set it, and the string, in a stable position. CONGRATULATIONS for your excellent handling of the subject." (One of the many testimonials on the jacket back of this book, this one from Randy Potter, RPT, President of the Randy Potter School of Piano Technology, Bend, Oregon, USA.)

Book (paperback, 120 pages): $19.95, plus shipping.

Doctor Piano

"Dear Doctor Piano..."
by Ken Burton, RPT


This book is a delightful collection of stories, which first began as a long-running Dear Abby-type newspaper column Ken wrote by the same name. Ken answered many questions posed by readers, and their questions and his answers are reproduced here, with a few more thrown in for completeness. It is not only interesting, but also fun, reading, and should be either on your living room coffee table, or in the bathroom - wherever you do your reading.
Ken says: "I have been servicing pianos in people's homes for many years. And during this time I have come to realize that most people are baffled by their pianos. They don't know how they work, or why they change as they do, or how to look after them properly.
This book is an attempt to dispel some of the mystery which surrounds "The Wooden Brother" in the living room.
Here are the answers to some 100 questions about pianos. And, in the process, you can chuckle at the art of Ben Crane, Sundre, Alberta, Canada."

Book (paperback, 203 pages): $19.95, plus shipping

Download Book Order Form (PDF)



     
Home Study Course
Keyboard Magazine
Seminars
News
Products
Links