Pianos by Fandrich & Sons

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Home of the one and only Fandrich Vertical Action that plays like a grand.

Fandrich & Sons Pianos opened in a small store in Seattle, WA in 1993. It is family owned and operated, since 2000 at our home on 5 acres in the woods near Stanwood, WA. The rise of the internet allowed us to move home, where we have our 2000 sq.ft. workshop and our studio with the finished pianos on display.
	Darrell Fandrich, RPT studied violin and piano as a child. He became interested in how pianos worked, and at age 16 studied piano technology at the University of Minnesota's McPhail School of Music, which began a lifelong fascination with how to make pianos more musical. He has put his degree in mechanical engineering to use in developing several innovations that have received significant recognition. See Darrell's resume for more details.
	Heather Fandrich began piano lessons at age 5. She studied piano for 8 years, but with less and less diligence, which she now realizes was largely due to an uninspiring practice piano. She got her BA and master's degree in social work and worked in the juvenile justice system for 28 years. She and Darrell met because her father, Robert Jenny, wrote Darrell's first two US patents. Only after she and Darrell were married did she learn that pianos were in her genes--her great, great grand-father was Frederick Mathushek, a noted piano designer and builder in the late 1800's. Her first experience with a musical piano was playing the prototype of Darrell's Fandrich Vertical Action™. Now she fervently wishes she had grown up with a musical piano, as she knows the results of her musical studies would have been quite different.

"The Fandrich upright is nothing short of magnificent. My personal feelings are confirmed by two of my teachers: One, from Russia and classically trained, told me without a doubt it is the best touch of any upright piano she has ever played. The other, an excellent jazz player with 34 years experience, told me it had the best touch he had ever played also. He even joked that he'd pay me to come teach me on my piano if he could play for a few minutes after the lessons! I searched all the brands available today, and flew up to Darrell and Heather's studio in Stanwood, Washington for a test playing. I'm not a great player, but I was pretty serious about getting a quality instrument and wanted to check out what all the "Fandrich commotion" was about. Since ordering the piano, they have been to my house twice to check up on it and tune it for me. Imagine that! It was like having Steinway himself come to my home to make sure my piano met his expectations! Their attentiveness to their product has really been unparalleled, and I believe Darrell is a living technical genius. Nice people, too."

-- Gregory Strom