Tuning + Maintenance
Kerner & Merchant services over 150 instruments on a regular basis. Most of our clients are churches, however we maintain instruments at academic institutions as well.
Most instruments are serviced twice a year at a fixed cost. We find that it is convenient for both the customer and our firm to have tuning & maintenance contracts. This guarantees the church that we will provide a certain amount of service to the instrument at predetermined times of the year at a fixed price. We schedule our visits with instrument size/difficulty and geographic proximity in mind to minimize cost and maximize value to our customers.
In selecting Kerner & Merchant to build, restore, or maintain your instrument, you’re choosing the best customer service in the industry. We focus primarily on serving all of upstate New York. This means that we can respond to service, repair, and emergency requests before your next Sunday service. It is a very rare occurrence that one of our customers is left with an unusable pipe organ on any given weekend.
We are here to serve our customers. Our technicians are only ever a phone call away.
Restorations
Kerner & Merchant is well versed to handle any restorative work that may be needed for your instrument. Restorative work addresses all aspects of a pipe organ, both tonal and mechanical. Services such as: releathering, refinishing consoles, facade casework, and facade pipes, repairing pipes, tonally restoring stops to their original specification, fire and water damage claims, and cleaning. Upon request work is performed in a historic manner in accordance to the guidelines set forth by the Organ Historical Society.
Major Rebuilds
Kerner & Merchant provides service for all major rebuilds to a pipe organ, Services may include new chests to be designed and manufactured, new consoles, console updating, tonal additions or alterations, updating the pipe organ chamber which may include insulating or acoustical treatments, motor replacement or repair, and Installing chimes.
New builds
Kerner & Merchant has built several new instruments. With our many years of technical experience maintaining numerous instruments; our firm fully understands what is reliable and well crafted. Our firm uses state of the art computational design programs that assist in this process. Each member of our team is a critical asset for making this a successful project while also utilizing the industry’s leading professionals to maximize our capability in providing a remarkable instrument both tonally and architecturally.
OLD BUT NEW
Our team also has the ability to transport and reassemble instruments all over the country. We take great pride in the ability to reconfigure an instrument to fit its new home. We take the necessary steps to make sure the instrument would be suitable for your needs and will be sufficient for the acoustics of the facility.
CONSULTing
Kerner & Merchant has many years of experience acting as consultants for our clients when a major capital project is on the boards for their facility. Our Team has been contacted by many of our clients when their facility is about to install a new roof, floor, or painting, ect that may potentially cause damage to the instrument. The K+M team sits in on meetings with all the various contractors during the planning period and make sure your valued instrument is taken care of during a period that may seem chaotic. For any construction project large or small we would be happy to assist.