According to people in this career, the main tasks are...
| Task | Importance |
|---|---|
| Play instruments to evaluate their sound quality and to locate any defects. | 95% |
| Align pads and keys on reed or wind instruments. | 91% |
| Adjust string tensions to tune instruments, using hand tools and electronic tuning devices. | 91% |
| Reassemble instruments following repair, using hand tools and power tools and glue, hair, yarn, resin, or clamps, and lubricate instruments as necessary. | 89% |
| Disassemble instruments and parts for repair and adjustment. | 88% |
| Repair or replace musical instrument parts and components, such as strings, bridges, felts, and keys, using hand and power tools. | 87% |
| Solder posts and parts to hold them in their proper places. | 86% |
| Inspect instruments to locate defects, and to determine their value or the level of restoration required. | 86% |
| Compare instrument pitches with tuning tool pitches to tune instruments. | 86% |
| Remove dents and burrs from metal instruments, using mallets and burnishing tools. | 83% |
| Test tubes and pickups in electronic amplifier units, and solder parts and connections as necessary. | 82% |
| String instruments, and adjust trusses and bridges of instruments to obtain specified string tensions and heights. | 81% |
| Adjust felt hammers on pianos to increase tonal mellowness or brilliance, using sanding paddles, lacquer, or needles. | 80% |
| Polish instruments, using rags and polishing compounds, buffing wheels, or burnishing tools. | 78% |
| Remove irregularities from tuning pins, strings, and hammers of pianos, using wood blocks or filing tools. | 73% |
| Repair cracks in wood or metal instruments, using pinning wire, lathes, fillers, clamps, or soldering irons. | 72% |
| Mix and measure glue that will be used for instrument repair. | 72% |
| Shape old parts and replacement parts to improve tone or intonation, using hand tools, lathes, or soldering irons. | 72% |
| Refinish instruments to protect and decorate them, using hand tools, buffing tools, and varnish. | 71% |
| Make wood replacement parts, using woodworking machines and hand tools. | 66% |
| Strike wood, fiberglass, or metal bars of instruments, and use tuned blocks, stroboscopes, or electronic tuners to evaluate tones made by instruments. | 64% |
| Wash metal instruments in lacquer-stripping and cyanide solutions to remove lacquer and tarnish. | 62% |
| Assemble and install new pipe organs and pianos in buildings. | 60% |
| Refinish and polish piano cabinets or cases to prepare them for sale. | 57% |
| Deliver pianos to purchasers or to locations of their use. | 55% |
| Remove drumheads by removing tension rods with drum keys and cutting tools. | 53% |
| Place rim hoops back onto drum shells to allow new drumheads to dry and become taut. | 53% |
| Solder or weld frames of mallet instruments and metal drum parts. | 47% |
| Repair breaks in percussion instruments, such as drums and cymbals, using drill presses, power saws, glue, clamps, grinding wheels, or other hand tools. | 46% |
| Cut new drumheads from animal skins, using scissors, and soak drumheads in water to make them pliable. | 45% |
| Assemble bars onto percussion instruments. | 44% |
| Stretch drumheads over rim hoops and tuck them around and under the hoops, using hand tucking tools. | 40% |
| Cut out sections around cracks on percussion instruments to prevent cracks from advancing, using shears or grinding wheels. | 40% |
| Clean, sand, and paint parts of percussion instruments to maintain their condition. | 40% |
| File metal reeds until their pitches correspond with standard tuning bar pitches. | 40% |
| Replace xylophone bars and wheels. | 38% |
| Remove material from bars of percussion instruments to obtain specified tones, using bandsaws, sanding machines, machine grinders, or hand files and scrapers. | 31% |
