The NZ Piano Tuners and Technicians Guild technical weekend was held in my workshop here in Wellington.

The Australasian Piano Tuners and Technicians Association, of which New Zealand is a branch, held its biennial convention in Adelaide.
These events are always a good opportunity to catch up with our Australian colleagues and attend technical classes.

The Guild visited the Mobbs early keyboard collection in Takaka, Golden Bay.
This special and rare collection is held by Kemp and Helen English, who were wonderful hosts. Paul Downie, a harpsichord maker, was also on hand to assist in providing technical expertise.

The Australasian Piano Tuners and Technicians Guild organised a one-week visit to Japan, with the primary purpose of visiting the Yamaha and Kawai piano factories in Hamamatsu.
As is common in factory environments, photography was not permitted. However, we all absorbed as much as possible during the visit. What stood out was the sheer scale of the factories — we only had time to visit several buildings at each site.
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We visited the Yamaha factory first. Their foyer displayed a number of unique Yamaha instruments, and we were divided into small groups for the tour. Yamaha were quite strict about what we could and couldn’t see, but what was particularly impressive was their use of CNC machinery and robotic carts transporting pianos around the factory. These carts played a short tune when moving, alerting people to get out of the way.

The Kawai factory appeared to have somewhat older equipment but was much more relaxed in terms of access. If we saw something of interest, we were generally free to take a closer look. On several occasions, I stood right next to workers on the assembly line to observe exactly what they were doing.

Having previously visited the Steinway & Sons factory in New York and the Mason & Hamlin factory in Massachusetts, it is always interesting to compare the different approaches taken by piano manufacturers.

The NZ Guild held a mini-convention hosted by Jenkin Pianos in Auckland.
We brought over David Stanwood from Massachusetts, a specialist in piano touch-weight who has contributed significantly to the scientific understanding of piano action. It was a valuable opportunity to learn from his expertise.

I attended the Piano Technicians Guild annual convention, held in Chicago.
This was my third PTG convention since becoming a registered member in 1998. These events are large, with hundreds of technicians attending from around the world, and there are always more technical classes than it is possible to attend.

Short video of the 2013 Convention in Chicago

I made a dedicated trip to Boiceville in upstate New York to visit the Ronsen piano hammer factory.​

Ray Negron, the factory owner, showed me all aspects of hammer making. Ray is very welcoming, and it was a fascinating and informative visit.

I have had a long-standing association with the Louis Renner company of Germany, Renner are the largest maker of piano action parts in the world and have been in existence for over 100 years!

While visiting Europe for the first time, I took the opportunity to visit their factory in Meuselwitz, a short train ride from Leipzig. I spent several hours touring the facility with the factory manager.

The factory presented a fascinating combination of modern computer-controlled machinery and traditional craftsmanship.
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