Above, piano tuner and technician Ed Carwithen with a Yamaha piano he is rebuilding in his shop. Opposite page, Ed’s tuning
wrench lies beside the pegs that control the tension on the piano strings.
Perfect Pitch
Piano tuner keeps instruments sounding ‘just right’
By Lee Farren
T
he map of Northeastern
Oregon inside OTECC
member Ed Carwithen’s head
must look quite a bit different from
the one in his glove compartment.
On Ed’s mental map, the tiny
town of Richland, for instance, with
a population of about 150, would
take up a lot of room.
That’s because Richland has at
4 OCTOBER 2008 OTECC
least a dozen pianos, which means
business for Ed, who is a piano
tuner and technician.
“A tuner is someone who tunes a
piano, and a technician is someone
who fixes it,” Ed says. “At least half
the pianos I go to need work of some
kind.”
Ed lives west of John Day, but his
territory stretches from Hermiston
and Pendleton to the north, La
Grande and Baker City to the east
and Burns to the south.
On his regular tuning trips he
takes everything he might need.
Tool boxes filled with strings, felts,
wedges, tools and spare parts fill
the trunk of the Toyota Prius he
recently bought to reduce fuel costs.
Most days Ed tunes two pianos,
allowing 2½ hours for each one.
“I like to take my time,” he says.
“I want to make sure the piano’s
doing what I want it to do.”
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Built to Last
A piano is basically a big wooden box holding a cast-iron plate and a
bunch of strings.
The 600- to 800-pound metal plate is what makes a piano so heavy.
The plate gives the piano the strength it needs to maintain tension on
the 200-plus strings that vibrate to make the instrument’s sound.
One end of each string is attached to the plate. The other end
wraps around a pin set in a heavy wood block pushed up against the
plate.
When he tunes a piano, Ed Carwithen uses a tuning wrench to
adjust the pins and tighten or loosen the attached strings.
Ed especially enjoys rebuilding old pianos.
“It’s neat to take an old upright built in 1910 or 1920 and put it back
into shape,” he says. “They work the same now as they did when they
came out of the factory. I don’t know many other machines that are
working 100 or 150 years later.”
His services are most in request
in towns that have active piano
teachers.
“If the kids aren’t taking lessons,
the families don’t get their pianos
tuned,” Ed says. “Halfway has a
lot of piano students right now. I
think there are four Steinways in
Richland—and people are playing
them.”
Long Music Career
Ed was born in Pennsylvania
and grew up in Florida, where he
graduated from high school in
1955. He attended the University
of Florida and earned a master’s
degree in music from the Eastman
School of Music at the University of
Rochester in New York.
He started teaching right out
of college, and eventually earned
a doctorate in music history and
music literature—written music and
literature about music.
Oddly enough, Ed never was
much of a piano player.
As a band teacher, he learned
to play a variety of instruments,
staying at least one lesson ahead of
his students. School administrators
often expected the music teacher to
take care of the school’s piano.
“I learned to tune pianos out of
necessity,” Ed says.
His favored instrument is the
French horn. He plays regularly
with the Oregon East Symphony
in Pendleton, the Grande Ronde
Symphony Orchestra in La Grande
and a community orchestra in
Burns.
Ed tuned his first piano in
1966 in the Panama Canal Zone,
where he taught band and choir for
18 years. He received help from
an instruction book and an old
Panamanian piano tuner.
He tuned the occasional piano
for a number of years after that, and
then took a correspondence course
in piano tuning while teaching
music at Grant Union High School
in John Day.
After Ed retired from teaching
in 2000, he picked up the craft full
time.
Ed tunes and repairs all kinds of
pianos: grand pianos, uprights and
spinets. He says each piano is unique.
“They’ve all got the same parts,”
he says. “They work the same way,
but each one sounds slightly different and tunes slightly different.”
Ed tuned by ear for 25 years, but
now uses a small computer.
“That gets me in the ballpark,” he
says, “but you still have to check it
to make sure it’s right.”
Many of the pianos Ed deals with
have emotional significance for their
owners. Some people keep the same
pianos they learned to play on as
children throughout their lives.
“Every now and then, someone
will play for me,” Ed says. “One
guy in Baker City pours us a little
brandy and starts to play. He gets
totally engrossed. He’s a brilliant
player who can play anything in any
key. I sit and listen, we talk and try
this and that.”
Ed sees most of his clients once
a year, though piano teachers might
call him more often.
Professional Touch
Ed’s most demanding job is
probably the piano at the Oregon
East Symphony in Pendleton.
When a piano soloist is due to
perform, Ed tunes the piano on
Thursday before rehearsal. He
checks it on Friday, completely
tunes it again Saturday morning
and touches it up before the concert
Saturday evening.
“If you’re talking about somebody
making their living playing, every
little thing could take their attention
away from what they’re trying to
do,” Ed says. “The piano needs to
be just right so they can think about
making music.”
Eight years into his new career,
Ed is cutting back a little on the
driving, but has no plans to retire.
“It’s fascinating work, and I really
enjoy it,” he says. “You meet so
many really neat people. They’re
glad to see me arrive, they’re happy
with what I do and they pay me for
it. You can’t go wrong with a job like
that.” 
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