Kapstan Piano Services

I recently bought a Kawai GS-30 grand piano because my daughter has played on this Kawai piano and we both loved the beautiful sound and touch of this Kawai piano. On August 7, Tom Kaplan came to tune my Kawai piano and after tuning he suggested that it needed Action Regulation and Voicing because he didn't like the sound of this Kawai piano and it was too bright. I've never had action regulation and voicing done before on my piano and didn't know what's all involved. But I had trusted Tom Kaplan because my daughter's piano teacher recommended him, so I didn't even question whether it was necessary to do action regulation and voicing on my Kawai piano. On August 29, Tom Kaplan came to my house and he spent the whole day from 9:30am to 4:30pm at my house working on Action Regulation and Voicing of my Kawai grand piano as he suggested to me on August 7. After Tom left, my daughter played on the Kawai piano and we both were strikingly shocked that the dynamic range became much narrower than before, the sound of the piano was way too "mellow" that it sounded like playing a grand piano with the lid completely covered AND with a felt covered on the strings. After Tom did something to the damper pedal, it had a very annoying "whoosh" sound every time the damper pedal was pressed. What's worse was that some of the keys had a "wheezing" sound at tail end of playing, and the touch of the keys became so sluggish that some of the keys were silent especially in faster tempo or fast ornaments like in Beethoven's pieces. Our piano has also lost its forte and fortissimo strength desired in the Beethoven language. It wasn't like this before Tom touched it. Overall, after Tom Kaplan did the Action Regulation and Voicing on my Kawai grand piano, our piano has lost its original glory in sound, touch and pedaling. It was a total disaster!!! Tom charged me $405 for what he has done to my piano and it now hurts my ears every time the piano is played. I wish Tom Kaplan has never touched my Kawai grand piano. Now I need to find a master piano technician to reverse what Tom has done to my Kawai piano. The cost is expensive and the lesson I learned is heart-breaking! After I complained to Tom Kaplan about what he did to my Kawai piano, he wanted to come back to fix everything. I was thinking, "How can I trust that he would be able to fix it when he didn't do it right the first time? Would he make more damages to my Kawai piano if I have him come back?" Once the trust is broken by evidence of his poor suggestion and poor technical skills, how can I ever entrust my piano to him? A lesson I learned in a hard way by paying a high price! I want to share with Angie's List members so that they can avoid the painful experience of what I have gone through. Do your due diligence on piano technician before you let them touch your piano!

He is very good. He gets top marks from me. He was very businesslike, but friendly. I noticed the piano sounded better when he left. I will use him in the future.

I got a piano that has not had any attention for 30 years. She spent 4 hours to figure out how to get the lid off and to clean out the piano. For the time she spent, she could have charged me more. She is extremely generous with her time and extremely reasonable with her price. She came back and thoroughly cleaned out and tuned the piano. She knows what she is doing and is very professional. She is knowledgeable and because the piano is so old, she did some exploring to figure out how to get it open. She is very persistent and I like her very much.