John Tuttle's
Personal Homepage

Although I know a lot about fixing player pianos, nickelodeons, pump organs and reproducing instruments, I am still getting started with the Internet and the World Wide Web. I discovered a world of knowledge and experience exists on the Internet and have tapped into every source I've found. Even if I can't answer your questions directly, I can now find the answers. My E-Mail involvement with numerous professional rebuilders, collectors and enthusiasts has opened up a wealth of knowledge that, fifteen years ago, would have taken decades to accumulate. Specific questions relating to player piano rolls values, instrument values, restoration costs and a host of other important information is now readily available within days instead of weeks, hours instead of days and minutes instead of hours. It's truly remarkable. Add YOUR NAME and INTERESTS to the GuestBook, please.

Presently, John Tuttle's Player Piano Repair & Tuning Service, located in Brick, NJ., pays the bills but exposure on the Net/Web has vastly expanded my area of operation. Recently, I conducted contract negotiations, via e-mail, with a satellite designer who wanted her 1926 Upright Aeolian Duo-Art refinished to "Showroom" quality. Since she is a very busy woman, she was extremely pleased that we were able to hammer out the finer points of the contract from our desktop PC's. It saved us both a lot of time and money. Most recently, I've noticed a marked increase in the number of people asking for the Free QRS catalogs and the number of Player Piano Roll Orders. I'm saving LOTS of money by using E-MAIL for almost every aspect of the ordering process. THANKS EVERYBODY! It's really working!!

I love to travel and frequently work out-of-state repairing and servicing player pianos, nickelodeons, pump organs and reproducing instruments. Every aspect of the business is handled by me personally.

Recently, I located an excellent refinisher who is now doing all of the stripping, staining and base coat refinishing. I still do all the compounding, final coats and cosmetics ourselves to create a truly hand finished "Showroom" product. I don't deny that it is, comparatively very expensive, but my work is as yet unsurpassed by any company I have ever seen and I only do one unit a year. "You've got to love it or it's not done!" is one of my mottos.

Since I do not get involved with the buying and selling of instruments, I operate my business from my home in Brick, NJ (near Asbury Park, Point Pleasant and Toms River). Seven of the thirteen rooms in my home are devoted to player piano rebuilding of one sort or another. Admittedly, most of my income is derived from the servicing and repairing of player pianos in the state of New Jersey, but I frequently travel to New York and Pennsylvania and occasionally get calls to Delaware and even Virginia and Ohio.

I used to enjoy fishing and camping in New Jersey a lot more often, but I've had so little time for myself these days that I'm no longer very good at catching fish, but I'm still a pro at drowning worms. My hobbies are still composing music, and writing. I am still working on my first book, which will be titled "I love a Player" (the preface). It is going to be the first children's guide to understanding the principles of operation that allow the player piano to work. My hope is that I can keep it simple enough for a child to understand and thereby entice youngsters to consider the trade as a livelihood. I am forever being asked about an apprentice. I've tried teaching the trade to more than my share of young men AND women without much success. However, if I feel that if I can spirit one or more young people into the trade by capturing their imagination with my book before I retire, I will have achieved my goal. I hope to complete it by 2010. The chapter on the pouch and valve can be seen at "I love a Player"(the book). Work continues slowly of the chapter about bellows. The "Preface", A World Wonder, can be selected from the Navigation Bar below this paragraph. It explains how I first became involved with player pianos and their relationship to my life.