Why Paul Started Mt Auburn Piano Movers
Paul Marchetti was raised in Watertown, trailing an uncle who rolled grands through the loading doors of the Cambridge and Boston music schools, and he later put in his own years as a piano technician, tuning and rebuilding and learning firsthand what a sloppy move does to a soundboard, a pin block, or a snapped leg. Time and again an owner would describe a general crew treating a 700-pound grand like a sideboard: shoved over a sill, tilted with no skid board under it, dropped hard enough to knock the action out of true for months. He had seen plenty. In 2009 he picked up a padded truck, drilled a small crew on keyboards alone, and launched the outfit he had always wished would turn up for a customer: one that breaks a grand down properly, beds it on a board, lets it acclimate to a fresh room, and names the entire job as one flat figure before a single strap draws tight. That is still the heart of the operation. Keyboards and a brief roster of heavy specialty pieces make up the entire trade, and the identical handlers give a concert grand and a parlor spinet equal attention.
Whatever paperwork a Massachusetts piano mover is supposed to carry, we carry and renew on time, and no booking is ever subcontracted or passed along. Hire us and whoever shows up at your door is dressed in our colors, climbing out of trucks titled to the shop, tending personally to the padding, the teardown, the carry, the haul, and the placement, start through finish.
How A Job Runs
The thing that gnaws at an owner ahead of a move is the unknown: will it land whole, in tune, unmarked. A flat by-instrument price committed to writing settles the money question, and a crew schooled on nothing but pianos settles the rest. Our quote tracks the type — opening near $220 on an upright, rising for a baby grand or a concert grand — with the boards, the carriage, the padding, and the teardown all folded in, so no meter runs during the move.
- Trucks and keyboard-only handlers kept in-house — vetted, background-checked staff, with no temp labor and nothing passed along
- Licensed and properly covered — carrying a Massachusetts DPU carrier license, plus USDOT and MC authority for transport between states
- Cargo protection of $1M riding every job, keeping an heirloom or a six-figure concert grand insured
- Built around the instrument itself — skid boards and grand carriages, proper teardown of legs, lyre, and pedals, padded climate-aware trucks, and a settle-then-tune schedule matched to each New England winter
The People At Your Door
Call the number and Paul typically picks up, or a shop hand does, since this runs as a compact Watertown operation rather than a phone bank. Out on the road, Paul personally drives a healthy portion, while two leads he trusts cover what is left: one takes the home grands and walk-up staircases, the other the conservatory and venue instruments along with the far interstate runs, and each crew member is someone Paul taught by hand. Nobody picked at random off a list ever lays a finger on your piano.
Stripped down, it comes to this: an actual Watertown owner who once tuned pianos answers for each booking, the by-instrument figure holds steady before a strap tightens, and the crew at your door knows keyboards and only keyboards. Read through what owners and musicians have posted on our reviews page, and once your schedule allows, ask for a no-cost written quote.