LAFAYETTE PARISH — He calls himself the “Piano Doctor,” and if you’ve ever heard a grand piano sound perfect before a big show — there’s a chance Tim Arbisi might have been the one behind it.
“I’m here to help people, people don't know where to turn, they don't know who to talk to, they don't know what to do if they have a piano,” Arbisi said.
For 25 years, Arbisi has been doing just that — helping people by fixing and tuning their pianos. His path into the profession was not traditional. It grew out of his own love for music and a willingness to figure things out when no one else could.
“So I've been a musician since I was 12 or 13, somewhere in there and morphed out of being a musician into working at a piano store, and at the piano store we didn't have a technician; or anyone that could tune the pianos,” he said.
What started with a broken instrument at a music store turned into a self-taught career.
“For two years I became the ‘fix-it’ guy and taught myself how to do all of them but there were no tuners and so I started teaching myself how to tune because I needed that skill,” he said. For Arbisi, performing and repairing require very different skill sets. Although his primary instrument is bass guitar, he quickly learned that playing music and tuning pianos are not the same.
“Playing piano and working on pianos are two different things. It's like being a racecar driver and being somebody that works on the carburetor, those are two different people,” he said.
After serving in the military, he returned to performing but ultimately realized working on pianos was his true calling. About 10 years ago, he made the decision to take his Georgia-based business national.
“I flipped the switch to go national and as soon as I did that within 6 weeks we were flying all over the country doing this,” he said.
Then came a call that made him pause.
“A guy called and said can you come tune a piano on a Wednesday in Augusta Georgia and I said yea thats fine, I got people lined up so I'm gonna need to move you around a little bit. He said no it needed to be at 12 o'clock and at the end I said, who am I tuning for, he said Bob Dylan, and I thought ok, alright, now we're stepping up a bit here,” Arbisi said.
Since then, his client list has grown to include artists such as Chuck Leavell of The Rolling Stones, Bryan Adams, Wynton Marsalis, Judy Collins,to name a few, along with numerous symphonies and orchestras.
Although his clientele now includes some of the biggest names in music, Arbisi says the heart behind the work remains the same.
“When you're playing music you're serving people and you better serve them something they like, and now with this you're helping out people, it's all helping that's what we're trying to do,” he said.
Whether tuning for a sold-out stage or a living room, Arbisi continues to do what he loves — making sure the music sounds its best.
