Ford Piano

Matthew was my piano tuner and I sat with him for most of the tuning which he was nice enough to entertain me and my tuning questions. I have never had someone this meticulous with my piano. I had to run out the door before he finished but when I came back, my parents and I were absolutely amazed at what he accomplished. My piano has NEVER EVER sounded as good as this. Tuned many times but he just had the magic hands on it. Big love to Ford Pianos for being an amazing hand in bringing this piano back to life.

Ford Piano has renovated two of our pianos. The hundred year old Steinway baby grand and the fifty year old Kawaii upright have been given second lives. The grand sounds better than ever and stays in tune. The Kawaii will give at least another generation the amazing sound i---for an upright--it had when I first got it. Both instruments look brand new. I recommend this company for the love and care they put into their work. We are completely satisfied.

Absolutely love the piano (and Pianodisc Player system) I bought from Ford Piano in 2019. John Ford, his son, and the entire staff have been an absolute pleasure to deal with. His son has been to my home twice to make some minor adjustments, and to tune the piano.  I have been very pleased and impressed with his expertise, which is only exceeded by his friendly and good natured manner. Highly recommended.

Ford Piano Company Rip Off
In 2018, I had my piano rebuilt by the Ford Piano Co. in Peekskill NY.
I unfortunately entrusted my 1901 Steinway Model O Grand piano to them.
Work that was supposed to take three months took six months, from mid April 2018 - mid October 2018.
The owner John Ford seemed nice and pretended to be so knowledgeable. He bragged that his family was three generations rebuilding pianos and could restore my Steinway exactly the way I wanted it done, which was with very light & easy action of the keys.

Ford installed new strings & pinblocks, glued the soundboard where it was cracked in several places, but didn't use clamps and three months later it's already beginning to reopen. After he 'fixed' the pedals, they made a loud noise when pressed down. He also gave me new Abel hammers, and did some other minor work but didn't change any other parts.

My main complaint is that he did not repair the heavy action of the keys. For the action part of the rebuild, I paid him $6500. I asked him many times before giving him the job if he could make the action very easy. I told him it was a priority for me and he should do whatever needed to be done to accomplish that. I'm a classical pianist, not a technician so I relied on his judgement. He said he was very experienced at doing this and would make the keys very light and easy to play. Just leave it to him.
Six months later, when they brought my piano back, I immediately played it and the action was still heavy. I called him many times to complain and he said he would send his son to pick it up and do the repairs, but he never did. I even offered to pay a mover to take the action parts to him, but he insisted that he only wanted his son to do this & I had to wait until his son visited a friend in NYC {where I live}. I called him one final time in December 2018, and he wasn't so nice anymore.

In February 2019, after much searching, a former Steinway piano technician was recommended to me. He told me that the Abel hammers were incorrect for my piano, and that Ford had only sprayed WD-40 oil on the top of the shanks. I saw this. The oil dried up and the action kept getting worse. $6500. for Abel hammers & WD-40 oil!

The former Steinway action specialist has now installed new NY Steinway hammers, new Renner shanks & wipens, touch weighted the keys, and done much more regulation, tuning & voicing. He also recommended a former Steinway damper specialist who repaired the damper mechanism, installed new sockets, rebushed the damper guide rail, replaced damper felts, released tension on the damper springs, installed adjustable pedal rods, modernized the dowel system, and fixed all three pedals - things that Ford should have known to do.

Did Ford rip me off or is he incompetent? His work and manner speak for themselves. I paid John Ford $13,700. dollars in total, and his way to fix the action on a 118 year old piano was to change the hammers and spray WD-40 oil on the top of the shanks!

Re-rebuilding my piano after Ford's bad non-work has cost me thousands of dollars more and both technicians couldn't understand why Ford didn't change the old parts since he was paid so much. These two very skilled former Steinway technicians did the job that should have been done by Ford in the first place.