Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum My visit with Rich Galassini at Cunningham Piano Co.

I was a delegate to the DNC National Convention in Philadelphia this year, so I got to do something I had long wanted to do; see Cunningham Piano.
It was everything I thought it would be and more. It's certainly the busiest rebuilding shop I've ever seen, and they seem to do the absolutely best they can for every customer; the work I saw was magnificent.
The sales department is HUGE, and has just about any type of piano anyone would want.......except junk...

If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend visiting. It's an amazing piano-nerd experience for sure.

The facade of the rebuilding shop, a building dating back to 1877, IIRC:


What we saw as we entered:


Rich showing us a completed Steinway A, and giving us a little demonstration of how nice it sounded:




Beautiful work:



The hallway leading back to the main workshop, with pianos waiting in line:


The foyer of the rebuilding shop, with a beautiful concert grand lid as wall art, and action parts, partly for decoration, and partly for instructional purposes:



The drying room, with soundboards and bridges being seasoned in it:



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The main rebuilding shop. Rich is adorned by my lovely wife...


Another view. A lot of pianos in process in there.


A Gildemeester & Kroeger, in process. Vroeger was formerly a Steinway factory worker, hence the similarity in design to a Steinway.


Soundboard work being done.


The beginning stages of rebuilding.


An amazing soundboard clamping rig.


An enviable collection of clamps!


This is how we clamp down the bridge...


Spools of piano wire for stringing.


Second floor storage area for rebuilding units. It was a shame Rich lost his hand...


A refinished Centennial Steinway, awaiting reassembly.


Hmm, one of those Cunningham pianos...

Regilding a plate. They use stir straws to mask the hitch pins - brilliant.


A regilt Steinway D plate.


A freshly-stripped case.


A beautiful mahogany grain pattern on this Steinway.


A sampling of different stains for a customer.


Pianos in storage on the third floor.




Action prepping.

The facade of the retail store. Gorgeous building.


The front showroom.


A Schimmel customer painted this portrait out of enthusiasm over his piano.....and the service he got at Cunningham...


The back showroom.


The grand room.




The vertical room.


I got to unwind from the DNC convention by prepping a P22 that was about to be delivered. It was relaxing.
Rich told the customer that he had a tech fly out from California just to prep his piano for him...

Thanks for sharing the photos!

Wow, nice pictures! Looks like a wonderful place to visit, or of course buy a piano or have it restored!

Must have been a very unfortunate incident with Rich loosing his arm, luckily it was reattached in the later photos. He must have wonderful piano doctors

Given all of the visitors in my home town of Philly last week, I should have a posted a reminder that any PW members HAD to make the trek up to see Cunningham (not very far from center city).

I made the same trip last year at this time and Rich was a gracious a host as you could find. I think I made the point then that anyone who lives within 200 miles of Philly who is considering buying a new or used piano and has a reasonable budget must make the trip.

OT, awesome pics, thanks for sharing them! What a great place, and great people!

I hope I have a chance to visit some day too!

Dear OperaTenor:
Your photos are marvelous. They really evoke all that is so special about Cunningham Piano, the amazing staff and esp. our own Rich.
I hope that our forum members will view these fine pictures and understand why a visit with Rich and Co. is such a special event.
Interesting that you were able to try a newly-rebuilt A on the day of your visit. I had the same experience. The A-III that I tried was the best that I've ever played. In my opinion, it was a world-class piano. God knows what amazing work they've done since.
Karl Watson,
Staten Island, NY

Great pictures!

Rich and Cunningham Pianos is well known and well respected here on PW and beyond!

Thanks for posting!

Rick

These photographs are reminders of my two wonderful piano-buying experiences at Cunningham Piano Company. Thanks for posting them.

Regards,

Wow! What a beautiful building and BEAUTIFUL pianos! The finish on that Steinway A is freaking GORGEOUS. Holy cow!

Rich, you really shouldn't make your guests work like that ...

Thank you OperaTenor for posting all the great pictures. I enjoyed the tour of Cunningham!

Rich, you have a great shop! so glad to see more of your operation.

Major wow, on all fronts.

Wow!

Nice photos OT!

You know, in this relatively small family of piano loving people, I have made friends all over the USA and around the world. When I visit a new city there is almost always someone there that I wish to see again, meet for the first time, and/or learn from - and I cannot remember not liking the people I met through piano.

This spirit of always reaching higher is something that binds together the very best people in this field and it always excites me to meet new people and reconnect with those I have known for years.

OT - we have met so many times - at conventions, at NAMM, etc. - I loved finally hosting you on my home turf. By the way, I did share with the customer that a technician flew in from California to prep. her piano (I also told her you were stopping by the DNC while you were in town).

She immediately said she loves the piano and would you please schedule a flight back to tune it in a few weeks! ;-)

Thank you again for taking the trouble to visit in a strange city with our strange Philadelphia ways. I loved hosting you guys!

All the best,

I'm glad everyone enjoyed the photo essay.

This was my first time in Philadelphia, and my takeaway was that it really was the City of Brotherly Love; simply passing people on the sidewalk was proof of that. And, being a fan of history and architecture, I was continually blown away by what I saw. The biggest tear-jerker for me was the Philadelphia City Hall, the oldest in the country, the site of the signing of the US Constitution, and an example Georgian architecture on steroids.



While we never had time to see Independence Hall, we did manage to get the requisite photo with the Liberty Bell, something I had wanted to see for most of my life.



However, the best time of all for me was getting to spend some time with Rich, and finally getting to see Cunningham. If I lived there, I would love being a part of that company.

I can't wait to go back!

And, Rich, sure, I'll hop on a plane to go back and tune it again...

Jealous!! I wish I could have OT as my regular tuner. Those commuting costs though...

Beautiful photos at Cunningham, OT, and thank you for posting them! I had the great pleasure some years ago of visiting Cunningham and experiencing Rich's grand tour! And have stopped by a couple of times since. What a place, what a guy!

And as someone who hasn't known Philly, it's been great to visit recently, as I've been involved in concerts there. It's a happening city! Would love to visit just as a tourist sometime soon.

Wonderful photos. For those of us who are outside the inner tribe, or maybe careless readers: I'm a bit confused, are there two Cunningham locations, one for retail and one for rebuilding? And how far apart are they from each other? Same part of town?

Thanks,
Peter