After my Grandmother passed away, her home was going to be sold with the Grand Piano that had been in my family for over 50 years. As I sat and thought about it, I couldn't let that happen, so I found Sweet Sound Piano. I got so lucky that they just happened to be in the area and came over within a few hours, picked up and stored the piano for 2 years because I didn't have the space for it at the time. After purchasing another home, I had the perfect place for it, they delivered my piano and it was in perfect condition! I highly recommend Sweet Sound, they did an amazing job for me. I have read some of the other reviews about them trying to sell services, etc. and honestly, I don't understand what's wrong with that. They are a business and if they have products and services that help preserve the fine instrument, why would they not offer those services? They offered additional services to me as well, I chose what I wanted and said no to what wasn't important to me at the time. I'm adding this in because I am going to choose to use them again soon and I am very happy with their service and my decision to continue to use Sweet Sound Piano! read more

I've waited a couple of years to write a review, but still feel sad about the interaction with this business. Jim claimed to have "twice tuned" my piano not knowing I could hear him only tune it once. He tried to convince me that I had to do expensive maintenance on my piano because I had an "important" instrument (a YAMAHA I'm aware of the value of) which was completely untrue. Left me feeling slimed. read more

Jim helped us find our Kawai almost 15 years ago, and he's been taking care of it ever since. Jim provides excellent service and is a real pleasure work with, drawing on his deep technical expertise and years of experience to keep our piano in great shape. read more

Feel very ripped off by jim. Still waiting for a detailed invoice from him have asked several times no reply. Beware of his services I spent several thousand dollars on my player piano it's not perfect did not receive the humidifier he pushed that I needed . It took months with all excuses on his end. Don't trust him!!! read more

We were gifted a piano on our local "buy nothing group" but we needed to get it moved ASAP. Sweet Sound were able to do it within a certain window and for the lowest cost. They also could tell us the condition of the piano (tuning, physical issues). Really professional folks and I already booked a piano tuning with them next week. read more

I called to get an estimate. They asked if there were any steps and I said 5 at pick up and 2 at my house. I was given a $300 price. It turned out there were 8 steps at pick up and a bit more difficult maneuvering where my movers helped them. In the end, to my surprise the price climbed to $750. I changed my review from 3 to 4 stars because a few hours later he called and refunded me $200 and apologized for the miscommunication. read more

Thank you Jim! Our family is grateful for your marvelous work and fast turn around on our keys, hammers, and coming back for a tune.

The owner and technician, Jim, was very easy to communicate with to set up a "rush appointment" (he found an early window and fit me in within a few days) to do a very comprehensive service for my 15 year old Steinway Model S grand piano. The piano was recently moved from San Francisco to Cupertino, so the change in humidity (plus the exposure to SF's humid conditions) had taken the toll on many of the piano's parts. From my perspective as the player -- the action felt uneven/stiff, and the sound was very muffled/unclear. I knew there was work to be done on the action and voice and tuning. Jim examined our instrument, and pointed out several areas where we could both improve the piano and help preserve it to prevent future issues. 1. He installed a Dammp Chaser dehumidifier system, which is widely recommended by pianists worldwide. The installation was clean and he walked me through the setup of the warranty. 2. He recommended work on the piano's action center, and the hammers to help with the symptoms I described, and the moisture damage he diagnosed. 3. I requested a rush-turnaround service, and he was able to contact his shop and secure a full day of weekend service to get the action returned to me within 2 days. The result was noticeable, and the piano's action felt much better. Here's the interesting part. After the service, I played my piano for a day or two and was still unhappy with the voicing. The tone felt uneven, and I had a second technician come over and provide me an opinion. When I spoke to Jim about the work that was done on my piano in detail (at the shop), he followed up promptly with a detailed explanation of what was done. I never asked once for any type of additional service, or refund, and Jim offered to refund me a large portion of the work that was done to the hammers because he did not want me to be unsatisfied with the work/investment I had made. I did not mind if the payment was fair, and when he explained the cost of labor, I was fine with it -- but Jim instead recommended a reputable voicing technician in the Bay Area, provided me with his contact information, and insisted that he send me a partial refund (it was significant). I am going to re-invest that into further voicing work. I didn't want a "cheap technician" -- I wanted someone with a good reputation, and high quality work even if it meant I paid a premium. Jim's service was not on the cheap side, but the work he did on the action was very good, and made me feel like I made a good investment. I'm glad I called Jim, and I will definitely call him again for future tuning work. Tuning 5/5 Action Repair 5/5 Voicing - Unknown, since it was done in the shop, and traditional voicing work might be more visible to me if it was done at my home. Thank you! read more

I feel like I allowed myself to be taken for a ride with Jim and Sweet Sound Livermore. "If it quacks like a duck". Tuning process was very expensive. Estimate was no more than verbal agreement. I had to call the office and ask for a paid invoice which I received right away but turned out to be inaccurate. Asked for a corrected one, never got it. Jim seemed to be confused about what he had charged me for and what he had done. Last visit dehumidifier he installed isn't working. In trying to be nice I was too trusting (my error). I'm eating the inoperative dehumidifier, won't be calling him back, cutting my losses. read more

We had Jim rebuild a square grand piano from the late 1800s. What a skilled team of people. They also found some issues while tuning a more modern piano and explained the issues and different ways to repair them and to prevent issues from occurring in the future. We found sweet sound as he was tuning the pianos of 2 friends. Love a great referral. He is now chatting with one of our neighbors on refinishing the wood on their piano. Very happy with the team of people working with sweet sound. read more

We recently inherited an early 1900's upright grand that hadn't been serviced for 35 years. A friend owns a relatively new Steinway grand, and repeatedly broke strings. He had Jim fix the problem by shaving down the felt, and raves about the improvement to the feel and sound of the piano (and he hasn't broken any more strings!) Given his recommendation, we had Jim service and tune our piano. Jim suggested we do quite a bit of work, including replacement of felt on the keys (they had significant side-to-side play, which is now gone), and re-rounding of the felt on the hammers (which was in surprisingly good shape and didn't need to be replaced). He also recommended the controversial (take a look at the one star reviews) dehumidifier, and we had him install it. I had a spare indoor humidity sensor laying around, and, at least in week one, I see that it significantly decreases the fluctuations in humidity inside the piano case. We have identical sensors installed inside and outside the piano body, and have confirmed they produce readings that match a different model of sensor. The humidity outside the piano fluctuates 2x more than inside. The dehumidifier generally clicks on at 46% humidity, and off at 44%. It's currently the dry season, and it is not significantly changing the average humidity inside the piano. However, it is decreasing the max humidity and increasing the minimum humidity. I was worried it might over-dry the air during the summer -- Jim explained the risk of cracked sounding boards in dry climates, and that our vintage piano was built to tolerate non-air-conditioned desert climates. This creates other issues here in the humid bay area. Of course, the real test of the humidifier will come with the fog and rains, but it's clear that it is creating a nice humidity-controlled environment and isn't risking over-drying the wood. After Jim left with the movement and keys, I thoroughly cleaned the inside of the piano, and noticed some old condensation damage below the harp. He carefully walked through the estimate, and explained what would happen if we deferred work, and explained how his estimated price might change depending on how far gone various parts were. His estimate ended up being spot on, and we're happy with the work he did. I feel his prices are fair, though note that he repairs and rebuilds pianos in addition to tuning them. Therefore, he is likely to recommend work that someone that simply tunes pianos probably would miss. It is clear that everything he did was necessary, and that deferring would have ended up costing us much more in the long term. We hope to have him tune our piano moving forward, and expect the recent rebuild to be a one-time expense. I noticed he charges less for a single pass tuning than some of the competitors that are cited in reviews that complain about Jim's pricing. Jim offers a service where he will strip the piano and refinish it to look like new. The finish on our piano is in pretty good shape given its age, but there were a number of white rings, oxidization patches and visible scrapes on it. Also, during transport, an already-broken-and-reglued piece of ivory fell off one of the keys. Jim showed me how to repair the problem myself, and the result looks much better than the repairs that were done in the past. He also recommended a set of products to maintain the antique finish, clean the ivory keys, polish the brass, repair stripped case screws, and so on. I'm confident that I'll be able to do this work moving forward, and the piano is in much better shape than when it arrived. I plan to apply some of this new found knowledge to some other antiques I've attempted to repair in the past. He also gave us some historical background on the materials and technology that went into the piano's manufacture. Thanks to Jim's work, we fully expect to pass this piano on to the kids some day. read more

Jim is very knowledgable and friendly to work with. He was even kind enough to do something extra for us. He takes the time to explain what he is doing and why. His work is excellent. read more

I requested a tune up for my Yamaha Grand piano and was told by Jim that he needed to "correct a moisture problem" for $950; servicing of the hammers for $780; a dehumidifier for $350; and TWO, not one, tune ups! The total cost would be $2265!! I kid you not. I paid him his $125 charge for this evaluation. I got 2 more separate opinions, and they did not feel there were significant humidity problems in Palo Alto. I chose one of these 2 piano tuners, who had close to 30 years experience, and he did a magnificent tune up and complete servicing of my piano and was here for almost 3 hours, all for a total cost of just over $300. Jim is pleasant, and I wish him well, but to my surprise and disappointment his estimated fee was extraordinary, shocking, and unbelievable to me. read more

I am writing an addendum to my earlier review, which was a negative one. I was pleasantly surprised to hear from Jim when he called me to go over my previous review. He told me that the chief technician for all Yamaha pianos definitively recommended the exact work he had recommended to be done on my piano. Apparently, Yamaha pianos are very sensitive to humidity, particularly my piano, which which had not been recently tuned, inspected or worked on. Also, the music sheets on the piano indicated to Jim an advanced pianist was using the piano, which is why he felt an extensive tuning and repair were necessary. The fact that Jim called to explain his proposed overall fee and his offer to refund his Estimate fee greatly impressed me. I now understand why almost all his evaluations have been Excellent and why he has so many satisfied customers. read more

My family purchased an old piano for my 11-year old daughter and had Sweet Sound of Piano move and service it. As others reviews have mentioned, Jim was quick to identify work like servicing hammers and correcting for a moister problem. However, he spent a significant amount of time explaining the process and "why" the work was necessary. He provided enough detail that I could explain the work to other piano service companies when I performed price checks. As I called other companies, the description of the work and the need for it matched. Pricing was comparable, but not cheap. A couple of things stood out to me: 1) Jim was on time (in fact 5 minutes early) for the two visits to the house; 2) Jim possesses a true love for the care and performance of pianos and 3) Jim took time to share tips on how to care for the instrument ourselves; explaining the details of the piano mechanisms to my daughter. My takeaway from the experience is that I could have ignored Jim's recommendations and dealt with a tinny sounding and perpetually out of tune piano. However, tone is important to me, and I want tone to be important to my daughter; and as a gift from her grandparents, we want to keep this piano in good condition for a long time. I'm happy that we hired Jim for the move and the service work. read more

I had Sweet Sound Piano move my "new to me" piano. Everything went smoothly. Jim was very knowledgeable, and gave me pointers. I'm glad he told me about a dehumidifier, as I read I need one if I place my piano against an exterior wall/part of a window. He was able to install one before he left. Overall, a good experience. read more

I found a piano for my kids online and Jim and his crew was able to pick up my piano on the same day and delivered it to me the next day. What stood out about Jim was that he was very passionate and knowledgeable about pianos. He took the time to explain what repairs my piano will need to increase its life expectancy. I appreciate their service, friendliness, and being accommodating. I plan to service my piano with them in the future but first need to save up! read more

** Update to the service. They took the step to reach out to me, and correct the fee and point out where the miss-communication was. I appreciate this so much. So i'm updating my review to reflect the quality of service as if the financial issue did not happen. ** They do good work. But do not explain much upfront. I do not know if this is a communication problem on appointments or what. Jim nor his wife told me there was a $100 minimum fee. We had him come for two visits because of a broken key. I thought I was paying one price for the key repair which was $60. But it ended up being $100 after the pre-pay of $30 plus $70 (100 minus 30 prepay ) due to min fee. We were going to get a re-tune. But I was not told the visit was predicated on that. We are waiting only because we are thinking of moving the piano which would impact tuning. Anyway good work, but misleading. We will not use again. read more

i recently worked with a kind woman from Sweet Sound to organize a piano move (Dec. 21, 2021) from sunnyvale to san jose. i was pleased with my phone interactions, but the day of the move i felt quite rushed and pressured by jim. i spent 45 minutes after delivery cleaning my floors bc i wasn't informed nor given the time to lay down plastic on my brand new hardwoods. also, i felt forced into buying something that i knew nothing about - a dehumidifier. looks like i am not the first reviewer to have been talked into buying unnecessary additional items. i was made to feel like this dehumidifier was a necessity (I live in san jose, not exactly a beach town) and that i shouldn't buy a nice piano if i didn't want to take care of it well. as a result of feeling a bit disconcerted by this interaction and like i just got sold a very expensive item $350, i decided not to contact jim for tuning and went with a guy who has been working in the bay area for 45 years, 25 years as the piano tech at UCSC. he was startled to see the dehumidifer and said i ought to unplug it right away, as it will more likely cause cracking. we don't live in the redwoods, nor at the beach. he suggested the reason jim may have sold me the dehumidifier was because it takes a lot of work to look at each individual key to discover why the swelling of the felt might be happening. this man put in that work (over 2 hours) to carefully fix the problem, instead of hoping the dehumidifier would act as a bandaid to the problem. i am disappointed. i now have a $350 unplugged machine attached to my piano & would really appreciate the opportunity to return the item to you. thanks for considering and replying back!!! read more

We needed someone to refinish our beautiful Steinway piano, which had sharply uneven fading from sun exposure and a badly scratched bench from years of child abuse. We are very grateful that we found someone so obviously dedicated, conscientious and deeply knowledgeable as Jim at Sweet Sound Piano. For Jim, this work seems less like a job than a calling. We have felt able to trust him completely to give us thorough and accurate advice on how best to restore our piano now and also protect it for the future. This project has been expensive, but we are very satisfied that it was done properly. If you are prepared to pay what good work costs, I think you'll be very glad you chose Sweet Sound Piano. Jim exudes an old world sense of integrity, pride in his work, and commitment to the highest quality. read more

Jim restored our antique player piano to working condition. It sounds wonderful! I feel fortunate to have found him. He's extremely skilled. read more

Stay away from this highly unethical company. Like another reviewer Jim tried to jack up his price when he thought he had someone in a corner. My wife called and asked him to move a piano across a room due to floor replacement. He quoted $150 for the move which I thought was outrageous for 15 ft move. When he arrived he said he would need to get a cart and move it to another room. For that he wanted $300 to move and another $300 to move it back. He clearly saw that I could not continue the floor work until the piano was moved and tried to take advantage of the situation. His attitude was take or leave it. He quickly left and said call me on my cell if you want to move it. No goodbye, thanks for the call, hope I can help you. Just call me if you want it moved and left. Very unfriendly person. After Jim left I called some other movers. I talked to another company that had 5 star ratings on Yelp and he quoted $125 for the same service that Jim wanted $300 for. Unbelievable how Jim tried to take advantage of the situation. My advice, take your business elsewhere. read more

This company is GREAT!! They moved an old upright piano for us... down a flight of stairs, then up a flight of stairs around a tight corner, and not a scratch on the walls, floors or the piano. These guys are pros. AND, if you need anything done to your piano, Jim is the guy. He was awesome. He made our old piano sound way better than I expected, and for a very reasonable price! Just a tip for those contemplating buying a used piano.... in hind sight, I would have called Jim to evaluate the piano first, before buying and moving it. He clearly knows a ton about pianos, and can quickly evaluate whether the piano you are considering buying is worth it. read more

was very pleased with the service Sweet Sound Piano provided for moving an upright piano i recently purchased. I called on Wednesday and they were able to schedule the appointment for that saturday. Once settled in its new home, Jim tested out the piano (played a Journey song!) and gave me advice/recommendations of what would need to be taken care of (i.e. moisture problems etc). very courteous and affordable. looking forward to working with them to get the services i need taken care of. :) read more

If you need your piano tuned - Jim is the person to do it. If you need your piano cleaned - again, Jim is the one. I have a Baldwin grand piano and Jim Woffinden has tuned it, cleaned it, installed a de-humidifier, and has recently restored my piano functionally as well as cosmetically. Jim and his wife are super people to work with. I highly recommend you all trying them for your next tuning - which should ideally be done every 6 months! Now we know. read more

Jim came to our house and restored our much-abused white baby grand piano to its original lovely dulcet tones in two quick visits. He has an amazing amount of knowledge about the inner works of the instrument, and taught us the how and why of keeping it in shape for the future. I would highly, highly recommend him for any service related to a piano, he knows more about them than any piano tuner or mover I have ever met. Service was efficient and of the highest quality. read more

This place gave us a quote for tuning. But at the appointment, the owner spent most of time selling other services and products. Didn't even tune the piano! He wanted us to buy other services before tuning it. He recommended services that didn't require because he had not even tuned the piano to know if there was going to be problems in sound yet. We then hired another tuner, a piano guild certified technician. He just checked the piano and said there was no need for other products or services. He didn't recommend the humidifier as it would generate power dust. He said maybe a heater to control the humidity, but no need to decide it until the next visit. He saw no need at the first visit. He had enough business requests; he didn't need to sell anything unless it's needed. He just tuned the piano. At last the piano was tuned. read more

I was looking for some local professionals to help me move my new-to-me 1911 Steinway Vertegrand piano into its new home on short notice and for a reasonable price. Jim and his team fit the bill and came the morning after I called and were completely professional. Jim is not only a piano tech but an accomplished pianist himself and clearly knows the art of piano care inside and out. He and his team gracefully managed to move this heavy piano without any damage to either home or the piano. This despite this piano being one of the few that Steinway made that don't have a flat bottom (making it somewhat tippy on a dolly). It even kept it's tune during the move. The whole process from door to door was done in less than two hours. Jim also gave me a rough appraisal of the piano and explained in detail the minor problems that it had which could be corrected. No push tactics, just an explanation of the problems (extra friction due to excess humidity, etc.). He explained the options for repairing and protecting the piano for the future, but didn't try and push the service right away. All in all, I couldn't be happier about the service and I would highly recommend Jim & Co. for piano moving. Stay tuned for reviews of his piano care/maintenance (when I have the time and means to hire him for that). read more

Jim moved my 100-year-old Steinway with great skill. He recommended some very expensive services, and his presentation seemed heavy-handed. I spoke with another veteran piano technician who cast doubt on Jim's recommendations and pricing, so I'd recommend getting at least one comparative bid before signing up! read more

Where to begin? Our piano would not be this wonderful instrument that it is without Sweet Sound Piano. Jim really truly cares about pianos and was incredibly generous with an additional repair, at no cost to me. And because of his expertise and knowledge of the piano industry, he was able to locate an extremely rare replacement part that my piano critically needed. He also took the time to explain some of the features of my Disklavier piano that would expand its utility, even finding and showing me videos on his phone to help illustrate them. Taking the time to educate me on my piano is not going to increase his bottom line - he did it because he genuinely enjoys pianos and cares about his work. I highly recommend Sweet Sound Piano for their professionalism, enthusiasm, and integrity. read more

OH MY I CAN NOT SAY ENOUGH GOOD THINGS about this company! Jim came out on time and was extremely educated on all pianos and explained our own piano to us that we have had in our family for over 60 years and yet we,found out, knew nothing about! Jim revealed to us a hidden BEAUTIFUL graphic painted by the manufacturer that was hidden by dust for over the last 30 years(we are clean freaks AND YET we overlooked cleaning the INSIDE of our piano. We have professionally moved our piano 9 times in 30 years and this was the ONLY time someone took the time to show us the beauty of our family treasure. We are FOREVER gretful to Jim, his crew and his wife for their knowledge, professionalism, value and I information. We now have not only a treasured family piano but a piece of artwork that is SIMPLY AMAZING and it was there with us all along and we didn't even know it!! We will be having Jim refinish and tune our piano on a regular basis from here on out! Best money spent EVER!! Jim also told us about a "scratch fixer" that works AMAZINGLY and we went out right away and bought all we could find and are now going around our home and "fixing" all of our wood scratches with this hand fix! Simply an amazing experience, having our piano moved, CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT ONE!!! read more

Awesome ability and knowledge of piano's. Highly recommend. Very fair and easy to work with.

We hired Sweet Sound Piano to move our Yamaha Baby Grand from Los Altos Hills to Palo Alto. They quoted us $275 on the phone. But when they arrived at the Los Altos Hills house, they claim there are 3 times as many steps as they were told, so it'll cost us $500 instead or they will leave right away. After they arrived at our Palo Alto house, they reassembled our piano and tested out the piano right in front of us. And Jim pointed out the piano has very high echo without pressing down the echo pedal. He told us it was broken and it needed repair. I had doubts right then they were trying to max their earnings per trip by not assembling it correctly. He was going to charge me $650 for the "repair", I turned him down. On top of which, he tried to sell me Caster Cups for $45 ea. (I found similar once online for $9.99), dehumidifier system for $350. I turned down everything and paid him the $500. Today, my son's piano teacher recommended a piano technician friend to look at my piano's echo problem. Sure enough, he told us the piano's whole padel part was NOT ASSEMBLED correctly. He took no more than 5 min to reassemble the part, and charged us NOTHING because it was so easy to fix. Now the piano is playing beautifully. You be the judge. read more

Sweet Sound Piano is professional, knowledgeable, speedy, and courteous. They returned my call promptly and scheduled an appointment, not a time window. They showed up on time and had very honest, practical recommendations for my piano. The work was done very well and promptly. My piano is now in great shape and most importantly, sounds amazing! Highly recommended! read more

We used Sweet Sound to move our piano, and subsequently, repair and tune it. Moving price was very reasonable and done quickly, one time arrival, etc. No damage done to piano or house. The repairs were done quickly (piano guts gone for 5 days) and the tuning appointment was on time. Jim is clearly an expert-- knows what needs to be done to get your piano in top shape. It wasn't cheap, but I don't have anything to compare it to. Jim also helped me out by recommending products to clean up the finish, and even repaired the broken knobs while he was out here. Great service, professionally run business-- if only he could make us great piano players as well! read more

This is Not a good company of piano movers. I left 3 messages in June trying to make arrangements to move my piano. They finally called back only to find out they will be on vacation. I don't know if this was true. We delayed our piano move until the end of July. I called them twice, and no return call. I moved on to a piano company that wants my business. It seems to me this job may be to small for them to deal with us. Do NOT use Sweet Sounds and I will mention this to all my friends that want piano's moved. Not a good company to deal with. read more

We had been looking for someone to repair our old player piano for years and couldn't find anyone - until Jim. In fact, before we found Jim, multiple piano repair companies told us the player piano could not be repaired. Jim rebuilt the inside of our piano, tuned it, and then fixed the player piano part which hasn't worked for thirty years! We recommend Sweet Sound highly for anything that has to do with pianos. Jim is extremely knowledgeable, honest, and reliable. Furthermore his prices are more than fair. He always let us know the progress of the job since it was difficult to find parts for the old bellows. Yet Jim never gave up and now we are enjoying the player piano more than we could have imagined. Jim also told us how to keep our piano in good condition, something we never thought of. He explains everything he is doing or recommends doing. Again we highly recommend Sweet Sound Piano! He brought our piano back to life! read more