Buying a piano is a tricky business! However, I had a good experience buying a 1982 Steinway B grand piano from Chris!I’ve tried more than 30 grand pianos when I was shopping for one. The piano listed by Chris was the first one that I tried and I didn’t have a high expectation on this piano at the time since it was almost 40 years old. Well, it set a high bar for other candidates with an even touch, singing tone and a reasonable price. I visited Chris’s shop and tried this piano three times before making the decision, and it didn’t let me down. Chris had attention to great details and had spent time regulating and voicing the piano. Compared to other sellers, his work was a deciding factor for me to pick this piano. Chris was a very knowledgeable technician who was able to answer a lot of questions on piano maintenance, regulation and voicing both before the purchase and after.I would recommend anyone who is in a market for a used/rebuilt piano to contact Chris. Definitely worth a visit if you are in the SF Bay Area!

Id been looking for a golden age American upright for a very long time. I was so happy to come across Christopher Ris and his restored 1906 Mason Hamlin. I found him incredibly knowledgable and trustworthy. And the restoration on the piano was absolutely top notch. I would recommend Christopher to anyone looking to either purchase or restore a classic piano.

We purchased a beautiful original condition Steinway M from Christopher.Looking for and buying a used piano, especially at the age of these classic Steinway’s, it was a bit of a daunting task. Christopher Ris was the perfect person for us to work with. He patiently answered all of our questions. As much as our new piano is an amazing instrument, it is also a significant investment. And when you’re buying a piece of history (100+ years old) and you’re not an expert— you need to find one! And we did. Christopher is a very knowledgeable piano technician and experienced with all aspects of these pianos which, for non-experts like us, gave us confidence that we were getting the right piano for our needs from someone we could trust.

I recently bought a rebuilt Steinway from Christopher. After trying virtually every used piano for sale in the Bay Area, this was by far the best one I found at a reasonable price. Christopher even worked with me to voice the piano exactly as I asked. Highly recommended.

Im a piano teacher in San Rafael and Christopher Ris has served as my piano technician of choice for about a year now. Last year, he tuned my old Baldwin Model B for the first time. It was by far the most expert tuning the piano had received in its 9 years in my possession. The pianos hammers were too worn down to tolerate any voicing, so Christopher spent some extra time creatively adjusting the tone in other ways. I expected not much could be done with it, as every tuner who had previously worked on the piano never bothered much or achieved much in improving the tone. But Christopher was persistent and creative in his efforts. If piano maintenance could be described as an art, and I believe it can be, then Christopher Ris is a consummate artist in his field. In its 9 years in my possession, that Baldwin had never sounded better than it did on that day, thanks to Christopher Riss hard work and attention to detail.And that was just the prelude...Christopher returned to my home this past week to tune a very different piano – a Blüthner I recently came to possess through a few strokes of good luck. This Blüthner is completely out of the old Baldwins league, and I knew Chris was going to have fun with it. First off, its hammers are not worn down, so he jumped right into voicing it. Voicing is a highly precision-oriented process involving reshaping the hammers, softening the felt, and matching each hammer to its strings. This is where an artist like Christopher Ris truly shines. He will voice your instrument to perfection. When hes done, youll feel like you just received a new piano, but the price tag will be much lower.Any good technician is going to readily spot subtle mechanical problems that need attention. For example, he noticed some sluggishness in the action and treated it by lubricating the knuckles. One string had a leaky damper, so he fixed that somehow. A whole section of the Blüthners keyboard had an overly shallow aftertouch, so Christopher went in key by key and made some corrections to properly reset the aftertouch. One specific low F-sharps jack would skip if you struck the key with just the right velocity. So with a little wiggling and tightening and whatever he does, he was able to fix that as well.And of course he tuned the piano, which first required a pitch raise, as the piano likely hadnt been tuned for a year or more. As mentioned above, his tuning work is truly exceptional – by far the best Ive received in my 9 years in the Bay Area.He charges a fee that is worthy of the quality of work he delivers. Yes, that means he is one of the most expensive options around. And trust me, you are smart to pay the fee for high quality work. Thats why youre on here reading these reviews, right?So listen, if you want a technician who delivers a pristine tune, who can voice your pianos tone to divine perfection, and regulate its action with supreme exactitude, call Christopher Ris. I can tell you with absolute confidence he is the best in Marin.

Chris has tuned and regulated our piano since we moved to Marin and is the most detail-oriented and thoughtful piano technician Ive worked with! Our action was too heavy when we bought the piano (a 61 grand) so he worked on each key to get the gram-weight exactly where I wanted it. A pro friend of ours played shortly after and said this is NOT the same piano! Its fantastic!. If your piano needs work - call him now. Hes worth the wait to get his time.

Friendly, expert piano tuning. I highly recommend Christopher Ris.