About Me

My name is Duaine Hechler and live in St. Louis County, MO. Even from an early age I fell in love with pianos - around age 10, my parents bought our first upright player piano - Lyon & Healy upright. We started with about 100 rolls and as time went on I collected rolls from everywhere until I now have around 800 piano rolls. Around age 14 or 15, I decided to rebuild the family player piano. Of course back then, I knew hardly anything about what I was doing but I made a commendable stab at it.

In 2000, after several down-sizings in the technology world, I went back to my first passion - pianos. I hooked up with a local technician I knew and started serious training and subcontract work. I also cross trained into rebuilding pump organs. To date, I have rebuilt 13 pump organs. In 2004, I started taking on player piano business and have restored 4 player pianos (Gulbransen, Schaeffer, Aeolian-Themodist, Hobart M. Cable). And one being my own (P.A. Starck).

Updated 10/21/07