I'm Jacob Last, and I've been playing piano, and tinkering with anything I could get my hands on, since I was a little kid. I began college as a jazz piano major… and ended up with a degree in mathematics. Later on I discovered woodworking and was a cabinetmaker for several years. Music, technology, and craft have always been parallel passions of mine, and the combination turns out to be perfect preparation for this work: a piano is both a sophisticated mechanical system and an expressive instrument. Caring for one well requires analytical precision and sensitive listening, as well as a lot of patience.
The musical and the mechanical are inseparable in this work. I tune by ear — informed by a deep knowledge of harmonic structure and acoustics, aided by the latest digital technology — and bring the same care to the rest of the instrument: the precision of regulation, the craft of voicing, the patience that repair requires.
I studied aural tuning at the International Piano Technicians School and am a Certified Piano Technician with the Artisan School, where I continue to deepen my skills through their mentoring program, an ongoing apprenticeship under master technicians. I'm also studying concert-level regulation and action work with Marshall Anderson — one of the most respected piano technicians in the Portland area. I'm working toward the Piano Technicians Guild's Registered Piano Technician (RPT) credential, the profession's most rigorous standard of excellence.
What I didn't expect when I entered this field is that the people who've devoted the most to this craft tend to be the most generous with what they know. That generosity has shaped me as much as any formal training.
I came to this work through someone who meant a great deal to me — a friend and early mentor who was one of the most generous and gifted people I've known. It was his example that first showed me what this profession could be at its finest: patient, skilled, and genuinely devoted to both the instrument and the people who play it. We lost him last year, and this work is, in part, my way of honoring everything he gave me.
