Santa Barbara Man is Go-To Guy For Piano Services
Santa Barbara is known for drawing some of the biggest names in entertainment, but when it comes to piano players — big acts, budding performers and kids cutting their teeth on Yamahas — there’s one go-to guy in town.
His name is Dennis Schwendtner. He can bang out the “Tennesse Waltz” and restore a piano like no-one’s business.
But it’s what he can’t do that makes him such an inspiration.
In a moment’s notice, Schwendtner sits at the piano bench and moves his fingers like ball-bearings up and down the keys.
“When I was growing up, my parents let me do anything I wanted to do,” said Schwendtner. That’s a big deal considering the fact that he was born blind.
By the time Schwendtner was 11, his parents felt it was time for a piano. He mastered the ivories like everything else he’s tackled in life — by ear.
“I heard about a school in Vancouver, Washington that taught blind folks to tune, regulate and rebuild pianos and string them,” said Schwendtner.
Dennis estimates he’s tuned and refurbished tens of thousands of pianos since his career started in 1967.
“My saying on my cards says, “‘An out of tune piano makes noise, not music,”‘ Schwendtner said.
Buying, selling, refurbishing and tuning pianos is all in a day’s work for Schwendtner. He said the farthest a piano traveled to him for repairs was from Jamaica, after a tidal wave crashed through a woman’s house.
“People buy pianos, think they’re going to play and they don’t so they sell them. They need the money. So I get them, bring them in, make sure they’re in great shape. I tune them and I deliver,” said Schwendtner.
His black, rectangular tuning kit looks like a cross between a doctor’s kit and a craftsman’s toolbox. He pulls out a tuning level, long, red ribbons and begins meticulously weaving the strands between the piano wires.
“Each note has three strings per key,” Schwendtner explains. “What I’m doing is muting the outside string so the middle string will sound for the particular note.
After you hold it that’s how you count the beats. I actually don’t count ’em but I hear ’em.”
The Santa Barbara man keeps up to 10 pianos in his showroom and fires off a client list as impressive as his piano-playing abilities.
“Ed Sheeran … back in the ’70s, Peter Niro, Andy Williams, Ray Charles, BB King, Nora Jones, Diana Krall … just on and on,” Schwendtner said.
Framed photos of Jones sit on one of the seven pianos he owns, alongside the other high-note in his life, his wife of 44 years, JoAnn.
But a foot in the mouth decades ago put Schwendtner face to face with the man who would become his best friend: Joe Walsh. Yes, the Joe Walsh of the Eagles’ fame. And he had a guitar with him at the time.
“He started playing and I said, ‘”You know, if you practice you might be good!”‘ Everyone was cracking up … I didn’t know who the guy was! We became best friends after that,” he said.
Schwendtner is quick to laugh, extremely patient and has always lived life to the fullest.
“I’ve done lots of things in my life. Some were crazy.”
Like the time a police officer pulled him over for driving with friends and he was the one behind the wheel.
“You shoulda (laughs) heard the things he said ‘What would you do if you hit someone?’ ‘I’d tell ’em I didn’t see ’em!”‘
Nowadays, piano tuning is the driving force that takes Schwendtner backstage
to the Santa Barbara Bowl, to school and church auditoriums, countless homes — with JoAnn behind the wheel, of course.
“What I love the most is making people happy when I tune their piano from being way out of tune … making it sound very nice for them. My saying on my cards says: ‘An out of tune piano makes noise, not music.'”
His message to others with differences: “There are ways around it … don’t let that stop you.”
Schwendtner has been a certified craftsman since 1970. He’s also ridden motorcycles, dune buggies, water skied — the only thing he says he can’t do is apply the color treatment while refinishing a piano.
For more information about Schwendtner and his piano business, you can visit his website here.
