I have known Chris my whole life. Chris has been tuning our piano for many years. He even drives from Raleigh to Charlotte to tune our piano as well as two other family member’s pianos. He does an excellent job. We highly recommend him! (he’s also an excellent piano player).

Anne Henderson Yonke via Facebook Reviews

I discovered Johnston’s Piano Service a few years ago, and I highly recommend! Chris tunes my piano every 6 months. He is knowledgeable, his work is thorough, and his prices are reasonable. He is always punctual, and he’s been flexible when I needed to reschedule. He’s very kind (even to my dog!) and I feel comfortable with him in my home.

Lynn Sutton-Pinnix via Facebook Reviews

Christian Johnston has been tuning my 1913 Stieff upright piano ever since I inherited it over 15 years ago. He also has done extensive refurbishing of the piano over the years to get it in good working order.

Mr. Johnston is extremely professional and does high quality work. I have been very pleased with his service and would highly recommend him to anyone looking for an excellent piano tuner.

Helen Moses via Yahoo Reviews

Christian has been tuning my piano every 6 months for as long as I can remember. He’s prompt, and goes to great pains to ensure that my piano is tuned to the highest level of excellence. I would give him my highest recommendation. He does an exceptional job!

Ray Stanton via Yahoo Reviews

I am a semi-professional musician and have used Johnston Piano Service for over 10 years for tuning and maintenance work on my Kawai grand piano. Christian Johnston does excellent work and tunes a piano beautifully.

Johnette Herman via Yahoo Reviews

For several years, Christian Johnston has tuned and maintained my Steinway grand piano — a  6′ 2″ Model A, that was built by Steinway in New York in 1909.  It is a beautiful old ebony black piano that has a restored case, the original genuine ivory white keys, and pedals and lift rods that previously had been re-plated and restored to like-new condition.

The piano was restored to look good, but unfortunately, the action was the original, and never had been restored in its life of over 100 years.  Recently, Christian totally rebuilt the action for me using the same German action parts recommended and used by Steinway-Hamburg, with amazing results.  The action is now rapid and responsive, the touch is restored to the light touch found in a good, new piano, and the tone of the piano is brilliant — sounding like a brand new Steinway and not like a tired, 100+ year old bar-room relic!  I am totally delighted with the quality of work and the results that Chris has achieved.

Over several years, Chris had made every possible adjustment to improve the functioning of the action, but it’s touch had become heavy, the hammers were worn sufficiently so that it had lost its brilliant tone and some notes in the high registers were just weak “pings” with no musical resonance at all.  Finally, repeated incidents occurred where various individual keys would no allow rapid-repeat and periodically some would not play at all.  Chris was always able to restore some playability but finally, convinced me that while he could keep making emergency repairs, a total rebuilding of the action was the only way to really preserve the instrument as a satisfactory, playable piano.  As the cost of rebuilding the action is a significant investment, I was concerned about the wisdom of spending the full price of may lesser pianos  to rebuild the action on this one — and would it really make a difference on an instrument of this age.

Chris assured me that he had rebuilt and restored a number of instruments like this and that the basic quality and value of a 6′ Model A Steinway that otherwise was solid, justified the investment.  After checking the typical market prices of similar Steinway grands, I decided that the price quoted would be a very wise investment for me to make.  The results are wonderful and I heartily endorse the work of Mr. Johnston.

John Robinson, Raleigh, NC

Chris has done a great job with the restoration of my 1925 Baldwin Grand Piano.  He as worked with me over the past six months to complete the piano repairs in stages.  This has made the work fit into my budget.

The piano has always had a warm tone, but after Chris’ work, it has a much fuller, richer sound.  The keys have gone from a touch that was too light, to one that is just right, with a good amount of resistance and give. The keys are more fluid and much more responsive to my touch.

I really appreciate Chris’ work.

Martin Williams (Sept. 10, 2012)